LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles was selected today to be one of five cities to enter in a historic partnership with the White House and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH). The new initiative is called ALL INside, a first-of-its kind initiative to address unsheltered homelessness all across the country.
Ambassador Susan Rice, the White House Domestic Policy Advisor; Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough, the chair of USICH; and USICH Executive Director Jeff Olivet all joined the launch event this morning, as did Dr. Va Lecia Adams Kellum, CEO of LAHSA.
Watch remarks from Mayor Bass at this morning’s event here.
“This is a historic agreement for our city – and I want to thank our partners in the White House, especially the President and Vice President, for locking arms with us to bring unhoused Angelenos inside,” said Mayor Bass. “Ambassador Susan Rice, Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough, and Executive Director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness Jeff Olivet have each visited Los Angeles since I was sworn in and today, we see the fruits of that work. I don’t invite White House officials to our city for photo opportunities, I invite them to help us get the work done and I am so grateful to have a partner in the White House that understands the urgency here in our city of the great need to bring 40,000 Angelenos inside.”
“Mayor Bass, you’ve done an extraordinary job of prioritizing the issue of homelessness from even before your first day in office in December. You have been off to an extraordinary fast start in making critical progress in tackling this problem,” said Ambassador Susan Rice during this morning’s announcement. “It was my real pleasure to have the opportunity to spend the day with you and Dr. Va Lecia Adams Kellum in Los Angeles, watching as you were doing the various things you’re doing to tackle this problem.”
As part of ALL INside, the City of Los Angeles will partner with USICH and its 19 federal member agencies for up to two years to strengthen and accelerate our local efforts to move unhoused Angelenos off the streets and into homes where they can recover from homelessness and rebuild their lives.
ALL INside is part of All In: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, which set a bold goal to reduce homelessness 25% by 2025 and ultimately build a country where every person has a safe and affordable home.
Federal partners will collaborate with the City to advance the following priorities:
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Fast tracking processes to bring people inside;
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Addressing documentation requirements and other red tape that prevent people from being housed quickly;
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Ensuring people can use existing resources like Emergency Housing Vouchers;
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Creating more regulatory flexibility such as support for expediting federal reimbursements; and
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Supporting local efforts to advance coordination with State and local agencies such as the local transit authority and public housing authorities
To accelerate ongoing efforts by local leaders, the Biden-Harris Administration will offer innovative and tailored support to participating communities for up to two years, including by:
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Deploying dedicated teams across the federal government to identify opportunities for regulatory relief and flexibilities, navigate federal funding streams, and facilitate a peer learning network across the communities; and
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Convening philanthropy, the private sector, and other communities to identify opportunities for follow-on support and collaboration.
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Embedding a dedicated federal official in each community to accelerate locally-driven strategies and enact system-level changes to reduce unsheltered homelessness;
In addition, the Administration will launch new cross-cutting policy efforts to address major barriers to housing, health care, and other support for people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, as mentioned in the ALL INside White House Fact Sheet and USICH Announcement released today.