Mayor Bass marks 100th day of administration and shares results

LOS ANGELES — Mayor Karen Bass today released the following statement after marking the 100th day of her administration yesterday:

“My top priority from day one to day 100 of my Administration has been confronting the homelessness crisis with the urgency it requires, and that won’t stop,” said Mayor Bass. Together, we will work to make Los Angeles safer and more livable in every neighborhood. I am proud of what we’ve accomplished together so far and we will continue to deliver action that makes life better in every one of L.A.’s neighborhoods.”

Here is a snapshot of the work done during Mayor Karen Bass’s first 100 days:

Housing and Homelessness:

An estimated 3,873 Angelenos have been housed thus far. Actions initiated by Mayor Bass account for roughly 1,000 Angelenos.

• Inside Safe: 945 

• Interim Housing: 1,336 

• Emergency Vouchers: 883 

• Permanent Housing: 615 

• VASH Vouchers: 94 

Strategies implemented in the first 100 Days to bring Angelenos inside include: 

• State of Emergency Declaration: On Day One, Mayor Bass declared a state of emergency on the homelessness crisis, which received unanimous support from the City Council. The Mayor also activated the City's Emergency Operations Center. These actions recognize the severity of Los Angeles' crisis and break new ground to maximize the City's ability to urgently move people inside. 

• Inside Safe (Executive Directive 2): To reduce the number of encampments, the Mayor has launched a new strategy to house Angelenos. ED 2 created Inside Safe – a citywide proactive housing-led strategy to bring people inside from tents and encampments for good.

  • 945 Angelenos have participated voluntarily in the Inside Safe program.

  • More than 150,000 lbs of waste disposed

  • Zero arrests 

• Accelerated Building of Housing (Executive Directive 1): To address the homelessness crisis, Los Angeles needs to build more housing, faster. ED 1 accelerates and lowers the cost of building affordable housing and temporary housing.

  • 360 qualifying projects are under review to be expedited, totaling 8,238 affordable housing units. City Planning has already issued 7 project approvals because of ED 1, totaling 440 affordable housing units. 

  • The LADWP Board of Water and Power Commissioners followed the lead of ED 1 and approved a motion directing the department to cover the cost of public right-of-way power infrastructure upgrades (line extensions) for 100% affordable developments for the duration of the Mayor’s emergency declaration, and accelerate the approval process for 100% affordable housing developments. 

• Unlocked Public Land for Housing (Executive Directive 3): More land means more housing. ED 3 requires City agencies to comprehensively review and identify City-owned land that can be used to develop permanent affordable housing or interim shelter for those experiencing homelessness. In partnership with City departments and non-profit partners, the Mayor and her team are now analyzing more than 3,300 parcels of City-owned land to determine which sites can be utilized in the immediate term. 

  • The Mayor led the Metro Board to follow the lead set by ED 3 by unanimously approving a motion to maximize the use of Metro property for temporary and permanent housing. Metro then identified a total of 182 properties for potential temporary or permanent housing, including 109 in the City of LA.

• Federal Funds Secured: Mayor Bass secured $60 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide housing and supportive services to individuals experiencing homelessness throughout Los Angeles.

• State Funds Secured: Mayor Bass secured $196.2 million from the State for multifamily development and infill development in the City of Los Angeles and across Los Angeles County.

• Locking Arms with the County - Mayor Bass is locking arms with the County of Los Angeles, and provided testimony at a Board of Supervisors meeting in favor of Chair Hahn's motion to support the City's emergency declaration and better align County resources with the City's response. The Board followed up by issuing its own emergency declaration. This deep partnership will dramatically accelerate and enhance our work to save lives at a true inflection point in Los Angeles.

• Fast Track Solutions: Some housing projects remain incomplete because of increasing costs. The Mayor’s Office has identified about 1,000 units with funding gaps that would cause projects to collapse. Now, the Fast Track Solutions Program is working to fill those gaps and keep construction going.

• Secured Prohousing Designation: This designation ensures that the City will get extra funding points in a host of applications for both housing and infrastructure projects and reflects the City’s commitment to meeting the housing needs of its residents.

• Expediting Affordable and Supportive Housing Projects: Since taking office, the Mayor has pushed to cut through red tape causing delays in affordable and supportive housing projects in order to get people off the streets and into housing. Three Proposition HHH-funded supportive housing projects with 122 units had approvals accelerated due to the Mayor’s leadership and were able to open and receive tenants in early 2023.

• Expediting Housing Vouchers: In order to move more Angelenos inside, the Mayor pushed the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) to move housing vouchers more quickly and effectively. On February 8th, 2023, HACLA kicked off with 17 additional contract staff who are tasked with placing 1,700 voucher holders in permanent housing by September 2023.

• Emergency Assistance: The Mayor directed the activation of three temporary City-facility shelters, augmenting LAHSA’s Winter Shelter Program, which gave coverage to more than 140 people experiencing homelessness, protecting them from the harsh elements. Residents were then given interim housing options.

• United To House LA Citizens Oversight Committee (ULA COC): The Mayor transmitted 15 appointees for the ULA COC to the Council. 

Community and Public Safety: 

• Public Safety Priorities: The Mayor laid out public safety priorities including calling for an increase in hiring of police officers and advancing community policing. The Mayor also issued metrics for LAPD, including training in responding to mental health crises, and reappointed LAPD Chief Moore.

• Established the New Office of Community Safety: The Mayor established the Mayor’s Office of Community Safety to reduce crime by providing the infrastructure necessary to support community-led approaches to increase safety and wellbeing. The Office of Community Safety will support and sustain non-punitive strategies that reduce crime, including civilian first responders, violence interruption, re-entry services and youth diversion programs. 

• Revitalizing the Gang Reduction & Youth Development Program (GRYD): The Mayor transitioned the $26 million prevention and intervention GRYD Program into the Mayor’s Office of Community Safety. GRYD’s Critical Incident Response Teams responded to 153 incidents to reduce community violence and tension throughout the City via unarmed response.

• Responding To Crisis: The Mayor's Crisis Response Team (CRT) deployed 121 Volunteer CRT members who responded to over 70 crisis situations throughout Los Angeles – including in response to the mass shooting in Monterey Park. 

• Confronting Crime on Metro: As a new Metro Board Member, the Mayor has begun to advance efforts to make Metro safer and more comfortable for all. In response to rising incidents on Metro, the Mayor pushed for Metro Ambassadors to be trained to use NARCAN in the event of an overdose.

• Combating Drug Overdoses: The Los Angeles Public Library has trained 350 staff members to administer NARCAN. The Department of Recreation and Parks is in the process of training its staff as well.

Neighborhood Services:

• 311: The Office of Mayor Bass is working to keep Los Angeles clean. LA’s Public Works Bureaus continue to work hard every day to respond to highly requested services like bulky item removal, graffiti removal, streetlight outages, pothole repair and street sweeping requests. Public Works Bureaus addressed more than 240,000 of these service requests since Mayor Bass took office, including:

• Bulky Item Removal: 145,280

• Graffiti Removal: 75,149

• Pothole Repairs: 14,544

• Streetlight Outages: 3,711

• Street Sweeping Requests: 2,418

Emergency Management and Responding To Storms:

• Emergency Declarations: The Mayor issued a series of emergency declarations to respond to recent storms causing high levels of rainfall, high winds and extremely low temperatures. The declarations enabled the City to coordinate responses and secure federal and state resources for significant impacts to the City’s power system, infrastructure and more. 

• Responding To Damage: The City has responded to tens of thousands of service request calls during the Mayor’s first 100 days, including: 

  • Tree Emergencies: 6,025

  • Palm Frond Requests: 3,201 

  • Land/Mudslide Requests: 2,757 

  • Flooding Requests: 946 

The Bass Administration:

• Hired Leadership Team: The Mayor hired 14 Deputy Mayors and senior leadership team members:

  • Chris Thompson, Chief of Staff 

  • Mercedes Marquez, Chief of Housing and Homelessness Solutions

  • Jenny Delwood, Deputy Chief of Staff

  • Veronica Gutierrez, Interim Deputy Chief of Staff 

  • David Michaelson, Counsel to the Mayor 

  • Jenna Hornstock, Deputy Mayor of Housing 

  • Randall Winston, Deputy Mayor of Infrastructure

  • Rachel Freeman, Deputy Mayor of Business and Economic Development

  • Nancy Sutley, Deputy Mayor of Energy and Sustainability 

  • Brian Williams, Deputy Mayor of Public Safety 

  • Karren Lane, Deputy Mayor of Community Safety

  • Zachary Seidl, Acting Deputy Mayor of Communications

  • Joey Freeman, Director of Policy and Budget Initiatives 

  • Stephanie Venegas, Director of Scheduling 

• Commission Appointments: The Mayor named 101 new City Commissioners.

• Convened Transition Team: The Mayor convened 120 L.A. civic leaders as members of the Mayor’s Transition Advisory Team.

Business, Economic Development and Economic Opportunity:

• Assisting Small Businesses: The Mayor’s Office rolled out Regional Legal Aid Assistance to help businesses recover from the pandemic, become compliant, negotiate agreements and establish a stronger foundation that will help them become resilient against future disruption. As of March 1, businesses can now go to lalegalhelp.org to receive legal assistance.

• Convening Business Leaders: The Mayor met with numerous business groups and organizations to better understand their challenges and needs as well as identify how to support the growth and retention of key business sectors throughout the City. This included roundtables with the Biden Administration’s Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration Isabel Guzman.

• Al Fresco Dining: Mayor Bass is taking action to support local restaurants. Addressing the program's uncertain future, Mayor Bass shared strong support for L.A.’s Al Fresco program and directed City Departments to work together to create a revised permanent program that incorporates everything that made the temporary program successful, including a simplified application process and approval pathway.

Energy and Sustainability:

• L.A. Sanitation Curbside Food Scrap Recycling: L.A. Sanitation expanded garbage service in January 2023 for more than 750,000 homes to allow for food scraps to be recycled in curbside green bins along with yard trimmings.

• Working Internationally To Confront Climate Change: Deputy Mayor Nancy Sutley participated in a California Trade Mission to Japan in March 2023 that led to the launch of Green Shipping Corridors with the Port of Tokyo and Port of Yokohama. Green Shipping Corridors are shipping routes on which zero-carbon ships and other emissions reductions are deployed, measured, and enabled through public and private actions and policies.

• Securing Fiscal Support: The Mayor’s Office continues to support grant applications for millions of dollars in federal funding.

• Partnering on Water Reuse: The Board of Public Works, in partnership with LADWP, approved the design-build contract for the Advanced Water Purification Facility at Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in February 2023. As one of the largest water reuse projects in the country, this project will treat wastewater for replenishing the groundwater basin in the San Fernando Valley, providing the City with a new resilient and sustainable water supply for more than 200,000 residents. 

• Rain Capture: 28 billion gallons of rainwater have been captured since Mayor Bass took office. 

International Affairs:

• Growing L.A.’s Global Connections: Mayor Bass has personally met with six Ambassadors, and cabinet ministers from Mexico and Korea, welcoming to City Hall foreign government partners from six continents (all except Antarctica). In total, the Mayor’s Office welcomed 20 international delegations to Los Angeles including 245+ official visitors from 27 countries.

• Building Ties Through L.A.’s Diplomatic Corps: Mayor Bass has engaged with 20 Consuls General and Honorary Consuls, recognizing the important role these foreign missions play as partners in providing community services, facilitating trade and investment, and employing Angelenos.   

• Attracting International Businesses and Investment to L.A: The Mayor’s Office welcomed six foreign government-led business delegations to Los Angeles and engaged with more than 175 international companies from 23 countries to promote L.A. for job-creating foreign investment. 

Budget & Innovation:

• Bridging the Digital Divide: The Mayor and FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel launched L.A.'s #ActivateLAforACP campaign to increase Angeleno enrollment in the FCC’s national Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).

• Laying Out Budget Priorities: Mayor Bass sent a letter to all General Managers with guidance for the upcoming budget, ensuring that we make bold and fiscally sustainable investments. The Mayor has also met with Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates, community leaders, City Council members, and department General Managers to inform her first budget, which will be released by April 20.

City Jobs:

• Hiring Angelenos: The City has hired 711 new people into City Departments, including 185 at LAPD.