LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Supervisor Kathryn Barger and Councilmember Nithya Raman today announced the newest Inside Safe operation, a first-of-its-kind Inside Safe that is addressing a longstanding RV encampment near the intersection of Barham Boulevard and Forest Lawn Drive. Yesterday, Mayor Bass announced that more than 21,000 Angelenos came inside this year. This is thousands more than last year as Mayor Bass deployed new, urgent strategies to confront the homelessness crisis. Read more here.
“We must work to address homelessness in all of its forms, including living on the streets in cars and RVs. Today, we took a step toward that goal with our first Inside Safe operation focused on helping people come inside from an RV encampment,” said Mayor Karen Bass. “I want to thank Councilmember Nithya Raman, Supervisor Kathryn Barger and our service providers for locking arms with me to help bring people inside who had been living in their vehicles on Forest Lawn.”
Inside Safe is an initiative that was launched to house Angelenos living in encampments and to prevent encampments from returning. This citywide, voluntary approach leads with housing and services and is one feature in a comprehensive strategy to confront the homelessness crisis.
This is the 33rd Inside Safe encampment operation in Los Angeles. The initiative is responsible for bringing more than 1,900 Angelenos inside. Mayor Bass is moving Los Angeles forward with an urgent and strategic approach to confronting the homelessness crisis, which includes declaring a state of emergency, taking action to dramatically accelerate and lowering the cost of building affordable and temporary housing, moving to maximize the use of City-owned property for temporary and permanent housing and cutting through red tape to move people into permanent housing.
“RVs pose a particular challenge for encampment resolution that make them particularly hard to deal with on a district by district basis, which is the current system we have for addressing homelessness in Los Angeles,” said Councilmember Nithya Raman. “Even though our office has successfully resolved many tent encampments across the district, the need to provide places where we can store RVs before they can be sold or disposed of safely is not within every council district’s capacity. That's why we advocated for support from the Mayor's Office and continue to advocate for a citywide strategy that is most efficient and effective at housing people in RVs. I am thankful for the Mayor’s partnership and hopeful that this voluntary operation will result in a safer living environment for those affected.”
“This work is being done thanks to the power of partnerships. It’s proof that when the City and County of Los Angeles lock arms and work together, and engage supportive partners like the ones here today, we can effectively tackle our homelessness crisis,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger. “Today is also proof that we can do this work with compassion and by preserving the dignity of people experiencing homelessness.”
The mission-driven food company, Everytable, provided meals for this first-of-its-kind Inside Safe operation. "Healthy meals served with dignity are a critical part of the wrap-around services that Inside Safe provides. We're proud to work with the Mayor's Office to address basic needs as people transition from the streets into interim housing and eventually exiting homelessness," said Sam Polk, founder and CEO of Everytable. Over the last four years Everytable has served nearly five million scratch-made meals to people experiencing homelessness in Southern California, including dozens of Inside Safe interim housing sites.
Inside Safe supports the following five goals:
Reduce the loss of life on our streets
Increase access to mental health and substance abuse treatment for those living in encampments
Eliminate street encampments
Promote long-term housing stability for people experiencing homelessness
Enhance the safety and hygiene of neighborhoods for all residents, businesses, and neighbors
Read the Inside Safe Executive Directive here.
Inside Safe is one feature in a comprehensive strategy to confront the homelessness crisis. In total, more than 21,000 Angelenos have come inside during the first 11 months of the Bass administration through many different strategies including Inside Safe, which has now happened in 33 encampments around the city. The administration is focused on housing more people and also building housing faster – with more than 9,000 units of affordable housing expedited in the City of Los Angeles.