More Than 21,000 Angelenos Came Inside This Year — Thousands More Than Last Year As Mayor Bass Deployed New, Urgent Strategies

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More Than 9,000 Affordable Housing Units Being Accelerated Because of Reforms

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass today announced that more than 21,000 Angelenos have come inside since December 2022, thousands more than last year, as she deployed a new and urgent strategy to reduce homelessness. She also announced that more than 9,000 units of affordable housing are now being accelerated as a result of her executive directive to streamline their development. The Mayor has established a more accountable system by cutting red tape and removing bureaucratic barriers to bring thousands more unhoused Angelenos inside than in the year prior and build more housing faster during her first year in office. She continues to unite federal, state and local leaders to collaboratively address this issue. 

Watch the video release recapping the first year of progress on homelessness and housing here. This morning the Mayor will highlight results during her first year at a press conference with officials from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. She will also host a press roundtable with senior members of the Mayor’s Office of Homelessness and Housing Solutions. 

“Since the first day when I declared a state of emergency, we have confronted the homelessness crisis with absolute urgency,” said Mayor Bass. “We have brought thousands inside and will continue to improve our operations to reduce the amount of people who have fallen back into homelessness and better protect those who are housed but potentially on the verge. As we’ve worked to house Angelenos, we’ve uncovered barriers and then we address them. We will continue our new work, as a unified city, locking arms with our partners to bring as many Angelenos inside as possible and connect them to services and support. Though we are proud of our progress there is still more work to be done. It’s a new day in Los Angeles and our momentum will not stop.”

“Housing plays a central role in addressing homelessness, which is why housing authorities, local officials, and community partners across the country are leading on this issue together,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Department of Housing and Urban Development Richard J. Monocchio. “There are few places this is as evident than Los Angeles, where Mayor Bass has been passionate about getting more people housed and convening a wide array of partners to make that happen. We value our partnership with the city to identify solutions to address complex challenges.”

Ahead of her first year anniversary on December 12th, Mayor Bass is criss-crossing Los Angeles highlighting her work on public safety, business, climate and city services and today, homelessness. This week, Mayor Bass will participate in events in West Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley, East Los Angeles, Mid-City, South Los Angeles, San Pedro and Downtown. 

Mayor Bass believes that thousands of Angelenos living and dying on our streets is a humanitarian crisis that impacts everyone. To address this crisis, Mayor Bass immediately declared a state of emergency, which uncovered an inadequate data collection and analysis system and relied on old bureaucratic processes that didn't bring people inside immediately. 

Under the Mayor’s leadership, the myth that the vast majority of unhoused Angelenos are sleeping in encampments because they don’t want to come inside has been methodically chipped away with a whole of government approach and collaborative leadership strategy while implementing new urgent strategies. The Mayor has begun to build a new coordinated and comprehensive strategy that addresses the crisis citywide and delivers results. 

We are urgently bringing people inside from the streets, building a housing and services continuum that includes expanding interim housing infrastructure, accelerating construction of permanent affordable housing, cutting through red tape to move people from the streets to permanent housing faster and locking arms at all levels of government and in partnership with local nonprofits and the private sector to ensure people stay housed.

All together, for the first time, Los Angeles is acting with a comprehensive, citywide strategy to address homelessness and expand housing in the immediate and long term – and we are seeing the results:

• Bringing Unhoused Angelenos Inside: According to data from intergovernmental agencies, more than 21,000 Angelenos have come inside as of November 30, 2023, which is thousands more than last year. See below for a break down of the data:
  • 21,694 Angelenos moved inside to temporary housing – a nearly 5,000 person increase from 2022. This includes but is not limited to:
    • 1,951 Angelenos who moved inside as part of the Inside Safe Initiative
    • 1,332 Tiny Homes
    • 1,398 Homekey Interim Units
    • 2,934 A Bridge Home
    • 1,977  Roadmap Interim Housing
    • 4,088 Family Shelters 
    • 2,243 DHS & DMH Interim Housing 
  • 7,717 Angelenos who have come inside with housing vouchers – a more than 2,500 person increase from 2022. This includes but is not limited to:
    • 3,563 unhoused Angelenos via Emergency Housing Vouchers; 
    • 3,616 low-income households assisted via a combination of Housing Choice, Project Based and VASH Vouchers.
  • An estimated 3,551 Angelenos have been housed in permanent housing communities – a more than 2,190 person increase from 2022. 
• Resolving Encampments: 32 encampment resolutions have been completed under the Mayor’s new citywide Inside Safe initiative, which was launched to house Angelenos living in encampments, connect them to services and housing, and to prevent their return to the street. 
  • More than 1,900 Angelenos have voluntarily accepted Inside Safe interim housing thus far with higher retention rates than other interim housing programs in L.A. City (81% Inside Safe vs 64% other interim). 
  • Encampment resolutions have improved public and environmental health as our partners in the Los Angeles City Department of Sanitation have removed more than 503,460 lbs of waste during the operations. Resolving encampments has led to restoring public places to their intended use.
  • The level of collaboration across the city and in partnership with the county and service providers has also shown the importance of establishing stronger service delivery standards to improve outcomes.
• Increasing Our Interim Housing Supply: Mayor Bass believes that Angelenos should not be left on the streets to die and must be moved into temporary housing as fast as possible while permanent housing is still being built. 
  • In year one, the City has either directly acquired or is facilitating the acquisition of 481 units of interim housing, including the Mayfair Hotel (294 units). The purchases build on the early successes of Inside Safe by scaling effective interim housing solutions and service delivery while lowering the costs associated with providing interim housing in hotels and motels, with a focus on ensuring access in locations across the City. 
  • The City currently holds contracts with 39 motels, adding 923 rooms to the City’s interim housing portfolio throughout the City. 
• 7 motels (300 rooms) contracted under 1 and 2-year occupancy agreements 
• 32 motels contracted under nightly booking agreements
• The City is seeking to extend the lease on the LA Grand, retaining 481 units for interim housing, with augmented services provided by the County through a State Encampment Resolution Fund award. 
• The City also completed two interim housing projects with a total of 233 beds and a Safe Parking site for 50 cars.
• Building Housing Faster: The lack of housing affordable to Angelenos across all income levels coupled with the bureaucratic and uncoordinated housing system has placed many Angelenos in precarious situations from housing insecurity to homelessness. Additionally, developers in Los Angeles have long been discouraged to build because of the time it takes to secure approvals for projects and the cost associated with waiting. Thanks to mayoral action, this trend is reversing and more Angelenos will be housed, faster.
  • To speed up the housing pipeline, the Mayor’s Executive Directive 1 (ED1) has accelerated the review of more than 9,000 affordable housing units across Los Angeles. ED 1 has cut through red tape at City Hall – what used to take 6-9 months to get permits now only takes an average of 45 days.  
  • The number of applications to the Department of City Planning with affordable housing units has also increased by 85% compared with 2022, from 6,500 to 12,000 units overall - both ED1 and non-ED1 units.
  • In total, 119 affordable housing projects have qualified for ED1 with the Department of City Planning and 59 project cases have received entitlements (60 are currently under review). In 2024, 27 City-financed Supportive Housing projects with 1,916 units are expected to open.
  • Fast Track Solutions: Some new housing projects remain incomplete because of increasing costs. At the Mayor’s direction, the Housing Department created the Fast Track Solutions Program that dedicated $20 million to funding gaps for 8 projects with 670 units. The projects would otherwise not have been able to continue construction or close on their financing and would have had immeasurable delays without the gap funding provided by Fast Track solutions. These projects have closed their financing or remain under construction thanks to Fast Track solutions and will house nearly 1,000 Angelenos.
  • 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. 
    • 32 Proposition HHH-funded supportive housing projects with 2,076 units had approvals accelerated due to the Mayor’s leadership and were able to complete construction and start occupancy in 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 get housing vouchers into the hands of Angelenos who could use them. Housing vouchers significantly reduce homelessness and hardship among low-income households by helping them pay their rent and engaging private property owners. On February 8th, 2023, HACLA kicked off an effort with additional staff who are tasked with placing 1,700 emergency housing voucher holders into permanent housing; HACLA is over 90% leased up for these units, and quadrupled the rate of leases per day. Overall, HACLA has leased up 75% more vouchers per day than prior to the staffing up. In addition, the Mayor secured critical process waivers from HUD to streamline and expedite the process of getting applications approved and moving people into units. 7,717 Angelenos have come inside through vouchers.
• Citywide Coordination to Produce More Housing: The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has presented bureaucratic challenges for developers that have led to some developers walking away from projects altogether. Following the Mayor’s lead, the LADWP Board of Water and Power Commissioners directed the department to cover the cost of some power infrastructure upgrades for 100% affordable developments for the duration of the Mayor’s emergency declaration, and accelerate the approval process for 100% affordable housing developments. 
  • There are now 242 projects in the expedited construction and design process; 42 projects with 2,404 units have benefitted from expedited approvals; and 61 projects have benefitted from LADWP covering the costs of public right of way power. 
  • This program has saved $22.8 million for these projects and has cut the development review, engineering and construction timeline for affordable housing by 85%. 
  • Angelenos are moving into projects all across Los Angeles like the Wilcox in Hollywood months earlier than anticipated because of the Mayor’s action.
• Unlocking Public Land for Housing: More land means more housing. Executive Directive 3 (ED3) required 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’s team analyzed more than 3,300 parcels of City-owned land to determine which sites can be utilized in the immediate term. 
  • The Metro Board followed the lead set by ED3 by unanimously approving a motion to maximize and repurpose Metro property for temporary and permanent housing. Metro has identified 182 properties for housing and has begun the process for expediting the development of 12 new sites in the City that have the potential to bring more than 4,000 homes.
  • The Housing Department earned a $2.9 million grant to strategically identify more land for more housing and to implement recommendations in ED 3, including development of affordable housing on multiple city sites at once.  
• Housing Across All Income Levels: Continuing her momentum to accelerate housing production, Mayor Bass signed Executive Directive 7 to make housing more affordable and available throughout Los Angeles. The executive directive works to incentivize more housing to be built faster, with an emphasis on affordable housing and mixed income housing as well as homeownership, to help people at all income levels get housed. It will also help convert existing non-residential buildings into housing.
• A Whole of Government Approach: The only way for the emergency of homelessness to be confronted is by a whole of government approach. Through constant collaboration and communication, as well as visits and meetings with White House Officials, Cabinet Secretaries, Members of Congress, California State Officials, members of the State Legislature, and partners at the County level, Mayor Bass has delivered significant progress in knocking barriers down and securing actions and initiatives to bring more unhoused Angelenos inside. 
  • Unprecedented Partnership with the Federal Government: 
    • Mayor Bass led a historic delegation with members of the Los Angeles City Council to Washington, DC. The trip focused on working to bring more unhoused Angelenos inside, making Los Angeles safer, providing more resources for our veterans, supporting working Angelenos, improving our transportation system, increasing access to federal funding and more. Among others, the delegation met with Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, and Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget Shalanda Young.
    • ALL INside Initiative – After President Biden announced his goal to decrease homelessness by 25%, Mayor Bass began to lobby the White House to consider Los Angeles as a key partner in that effort. Days later, Mayor Bass hosted Ambassador Susan Rice, the then-Director of the United States Domestic Policy Council, in Los Angeles and showed her new, innovative approaches to confronting the homelessness crisis. In May, Los Angeles was selected as one of five cities to enter into a historic partnership with the White House and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. Currently, a federal team leader is working in the Mayor’s Office to expedite federal resource utilization, address regulatory roadblocks and create an unsheltered emergency incident response plan. The ALL INside initiative is a first-of-its-kind effort to address unsheltered homelessness at the federal level.
    • Slicing Through Bureaucratic Red Tape – In moving to bring unhoused Angelenos inside urgently, the Bass administration ran into barriers – some Angelenos were unhoused because they were unable to prove financial need or did not possess a government issued identification. Mayor Karen Bass and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced a critical agreement to bring more Angelenos inside faster. The Mayor requested presumptive eligibility, which means allowing self-certification of income, Social Security Number, date of birth, and disability. If an individual lives in a tent, homeless outreach staff can offer them housing and assist them in acquiring identification, reducing red tape to allow Angelenos in temporary housing to be placed in permanent housing faster. Once individuals are in permanent housing, housing authorities will work to collect verification. The Mayor’s delegation to Washington, DC in October followed up on this action and requested continued flexibility to bring more Angelenos inside.
    • Funding – 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. Earlier this year, the Mayor and the City Council worked with members of Congress to secure more than $35 million in the proposed Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations bills to improve housing and support programs like Inside Safe.
    • Senior Official Visits:
      • Homelessness cannot be addressed without providing services for substance abuse and mental health. Mayor Bass hosted U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra in Los Angeles to highlight the need for substance abuse and mental health treatment when addressing homelessness. The Mayor is seeking continued support from the Department to remove barriers to service for Angelenos in need of mental health and substance abuse treatment.
      • Mayor Bass hosted Tom Perez, Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, in Los Angeles to visit Skid Row and join regional elected leaders including City Councilmembers, local mayors, and members of the County Board of Supervisors at a reception at City Hall as part of their focused discussion on solutions to urgently confront the homelessness crisis. This visit continued collaboration with the Biden Administration and helped lead to continued support from the White House.
      • Mayor Bass hosted Ambassador Susan Rice, then-Domestic Policy Advisor to the President, where they toured Permanent Supportive Housing in Skid Row, including veterans housing, and met with service providers and affordable housing developers to discuss federal policy opportunities to accelerate housing in Los Angeles. Mayor Bass also hosted Jeff Olivet, the Executive Director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness in Los Angeles to observe an Inside Safe operation and meet with service providers and government partners to discuss federal policy regarding homelessness and substance abuse. They also visited the Hilda Solis Care First Village to see first hand the innovative interim housing built from shipping containers that provides housing for formerly unhoused residents of Los Angeles. After these visits, the White House selected Los Angeles to join four other cities in participating in ALL INside. 
      • Mayor Bass attended a grand opening with U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough, of Buildings 205 and 208 at the VA’s West Los Angeles campus. The two buildings offer a combined 120 permanent, private residential units for unhoused and at-risk veterans. Veterans sometimes are unable to qualify for housing because of other benefits they receive. Some of these units may still be vacant due to veteran benefits causing unintended barriers that prevent unhoused veterans from coming inside. The Mayor continues to work with the VA to ensure that veteran benefits don’t exclude unhoused Angelenos from being eligible to receive housing.
      • During a convening in Los Angeles of the United States Conference of Mayors Task Force on Homelessness, which Mayor Bass chairs, the Mayor hosted White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden, providing Mayors across the country the opportunity to share best practices and request critical assistance from the federal government.
  • Unprecedented Partnership With the State securing nearly $550 Million: 
    • In March 2023, Governor Newsom announced the distribution of 500 units of interim housing for the City of Los Angeles to be located on publicly owned land; the State working with the City on a plan to deliver the units.
    • Secured Pro-Housing Designation: The Governor announced Los Angeles as a recipient of the Pro-Housing Designation, which will provide the City with extra points, boosting its chances for state dollars in a host of applications for both housing and infrastructure projects. This significant designation reflects the City’s commitment to meeting the housing needs of its residents. It has already led to a $3.99 million grant for the Los Angeles Housing Department. 
    • The City of Los Angeles received $156.7 million from the State of California Strategic Growth Council’s Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program. Nearly $100 million will support the production of four new affordable housing projects, resulting in 466 affordable units in Downtown Los Angeles, Koreatown, Crenshaw, and Historic South Central. 
    • Mayor Bass secured $196.2 million from the State for affordable housing development in the City of Los Angeles and across Los Angeles County.
    • Mayor Bass secured over $58.6 million from the State’s Homekey program to support the acquisition and operation of two motels for use as 187 units of interim housing. Additionally, the City partnered with HACLA to secure $40 million to acquire three brand new, vacant apartment buildings that will provide 130 units of housing (126 for permanent supportive housing) and to develop 24 new units of permanent supportive housing using innovative construction techniques in partnership with the Carpenter’s Union.  
    • Los Angeles County and City leaders secured nearly $60 million in state money via the Encampment Resolution Funding grant to bring Angelenos living in Skid Row inside and reduce tents and encampments in Downtown Los Angeles.
    • The Mayor’s Office coordinated with City Council Offices to identify housing projects that needed gap funding to make renovations and improvements in order to bring more people inside who are currently living on the streets in tents and encampments. The Mayor’s Office then worked with State legislators to secure millions of dollars of state funding to fill those gaps in sites across the city. The Mayor joined State Senator Henry Stern, State Senator Caroline Menjivar, Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo, Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and Councilmember John Lee to announce this funding made available in the Fiscal Year 2023-2024 state budget. 
    • Two bills Mayor Bass sponsored became law after Governor Newsom signed them to further the effort to aggressively confront the homelessness crisis. 
      • AB 785 (Asm. Miguel Santiago) will help the City move more people indoors more quickly by extending the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) exemptions for the City and unincorporated areas of the County of Los Angeles until 2030 to streamline the construction of affordable housing, low-barrier navigation centers, supportive housing, and transitional housing for youth. 
      • AB 1734 (Asm. Reggie Jones-Sawyer) will create an exemption from the Surplus Land Act, allowing the City to more easily utilize existing publicly-owned property to further address the housing and homelessness crisis.
  • Locking Arms with the County and LAHSA: Mayor Bass is locking arms with regional partners including the County of Los Angeles, the 87 other cities in the county, and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. 
    • The Mayor collaborated with the County to secure a $60 million encampment resolution grant to serve people experiencing homelessness in Skid Row. This money will be used to provide intensive wraparound services to people who are coming inside from the streets of Skid Row.
    • The Mayor appointed herself to the LAHSA Commission in a demonstration of her commitment to finding solutions and working collaboratively across jurisdictions.
    • The Mayor is a Board member of the newly formed Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Authority (LACAHSA) and also appointed three members to the Board.
    • Los Angeles County has launched Pathway Home, its own approach to house Angelenos in encampments, in coordination with Inside Safe. The County continues to work in partnership with the Mayor’s Office for each Inside Safe operation. 
• Changing The Way Los Angeles Assists Unhoused Angelenos During Emergencies: Mayor Bass launched a new approach to emergency shelter, offering unhoused Angelenos a path to permanent housing when temporary shelters close as opposed to returning Angelenos to the streets. 
  • In February, 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. 
  • In August, the Mayor’s Office partnered with City departments, LAHSA and the County to provide 293 units during Tropical Storm Hilary –  the most temporary emergency shelter for the unhoused during a storm since at least 2020. 
  • In November, the Mayor's office partnered with LAHSA to offer housing to unsheltered Angelenos displaced by the I-10 freeway fire. 13 individuals moved indoors, either to interim housing or through family reunification.

Preventing Angelenos From Falling Into Homelessness:

In addition to bringing unhoused Angelenos inside, Mayor Bass has worked with the City Council and other partners to help prevent Angelenos from falling into homelessness. This year, Los Angeles experienced a wave of eviction notices due to expiring COVID-19 renter protections. Mayor Bass and leaders on the City Council like Councilwoman Nithya Raman, Chair of the City Council Housing and Homelessness Committee, acted swiftly to not only provide resources but actual services for those at risk of losing their homes. 

• Securing Resources: Earlier this year, the City Council approved the Measure ULA Expenditure Plan, made possible after voters passed Measure ULA last November. In addition to $30,400,000 for the Short-Term Emergency Assistance Program, which also included assistance for small landlords, the plan includes:
  • $23,000,000 for the Eviction Defense/Prevention Program, to continue and expand the Stay Housed LA (SHLA) program, a partnership with the County, legal service providers and community organizations, that provides tenant households at risk of eviction, with legal support, “know your rights” education, and in limited cases, rental assistance through settlements with their landlords. 
  • $5,520,000 for a tenant outreach and education program and campaign to provide broad and targeted tenant education outreach services, including workshops, legal clinics, paid and earned media and targeted social media. 
  • $11,219,694 for the Protections from Tenant Harassment Program. Funds will be allocated for infrastructure, technology, and community outreach, to educate tenants, as well as landlords, about their rights and obligations, and to enforce protections against tenant harassment. The City adopted the Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance (TAHO) (effective August 6, 2021) to protect tenants from harassment by landlords. 
  • $11,000,000 to provide rental subsidies and move-in assistance to low income seniors and people with disabilities, who are currently experiencing or at imminent risk of homelessness. These subsidies are paid to landlords. 
  • $56,860,306 for development of multifamily affordable housing to increase affordable housing units in the City with an initiative called “Accelerator Plus.” The program will fund “shovel-ready” affordable housing projects that are ready to quickly start or complete construction with an additional loan of no more than $12 million to close a financing gap. 
• The Mayor’s Fund Los Angeles, a separate non-profit organization dedicated to serving LA in partnership with Mayor Bass, has anchored its work with a major initiative to prevent Angelenos from falling into homelessness. In just 4 months, the Mayor’s Fund initiative We Are LA has:
  • Launched a hotline for people on the verge of homelessness. 
  • Contacted and spoken with more than 175,000 Angelenos who are rent-burdened and living in poverty.
  • From those contacts, assessed over 18,700 households for eligibility for federal, state and local benefits and assisted with applications; and for those that received eviction notices, assisted with filing a response.
  • Starting November 1, launched additional outreach to another 5,095 households that received eviction notices.
  • Advanced the recruitment and training of over 200 pro-bono attorneys to help people stay housed.