LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass commended the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles Commission for selecting nationally-recognized housing and homelessness solutions leader Lourdes Castro Ramírez as its next President and CEO. Ms. Castro Ramírez’ leadership will expand, extend and deepen coordination between HACLA, City and County partners to continue momentum toward confronting the homelessness crisis.
“There’s no one better prepared to lead HACLA than Lourdes Castro Ramírez. She has been an invaluable member of my executive team as we brought thousands of Angelenos safely inside, cut through red tape to accelerate more than 20,000 units of affordable housing, secured policy changes to bring more Veterans into housing and locked arms with all levels of government to make change for the people of Los Angeles,” said Mayor Bass. “I look forward to a new approach where the City and HACLA can work much more closely together to advance our shared goals of fully utilizing federal housing vouchers, housing more Veterans, modernizing HACLA’s housing sites and building trust with its residents. I thank her for all that she has done for the Angelenos and all that she will continue to do.”
Ms. Castro Ramírez helped lead transformative change during her time in the Bass Administration. She worked closely with federal partners and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to secure policy changes to bring more Veterans into housing, advanced improvements to Executive Directive 1 to continue the pipeline of accelerating 100% affordable housing units, laid the groundwork to streamline the historically cumbersome payment process for homeless service providers, oversaw the renovation and opening of the first permanent interim housing infrastructure in the city and worked closely with the County, LAHSA and all levels of government to bring thousands of Angelenos inside off the streets.
“I returned to Los Angeles to deliver on Mayor Bass’ vision for urgent change that breaks with the old ways of doing things and that is the approach that I will continue to lead with as HACLA’s next President and CEO,” said Lourdes Castro Ramírez. “We’ve made progress in keeping people housed, bringing more people inside and fundamentally changing how City Hall approaches the homelessness crisis. That’s the energy and intention that I intend to bring to HACLA – all of us, working together to break through the status quo for Angelenos.”
Ms. Castro Ramírez will begin her role as HACLA President and CEO on December 2. She will continue to advise Mayor Bass and her team on key policies and priorities. The next Chief of Housing and Homelessness Solutions will be announced in the coming weeks.