LA’s first female mayor declares state of emergency over homelessness

Karen Bass says the declaration will ‘recognise the severity of our crisis’

Karen Bass, the new mayor of Los Angeles, has issued a state of emergency declaration for homelessness in the city.

Ms Bass, a longtime member of Congress who defeated billionaire developer Rick Caruso in November to win election as mayor, made addressing the city’s housing and homelessness crises a focal point of her inagural address on Sunday and tehe focus of her first day in office on Monday.

“It will create the structure necessary for us to have a true, unified and citywide strategy to set us on the path to solve homelessness,’’ Ms Bass said of the emergency declaration in comments reported by NBC Los Angeles.

Ms Bass appeared at a press conference on Monday with the Chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Janice Hahn and the President of the scandal-plagued Los Angeles City Council PaulKrekorian to announce her declaration. Ms Bass, who previously promised to house 17,000 people during her first year as mayor, will likely have to work with both leaders and a wide array of elected officials and community leaders to bolster social service programs.

“This is a matter of life and death and that’s exactly how my administration will treat it,” Ms Bass tweeted. “It is a new day in Los Angeles.”

Like many major cities in the US, particularly on the West Coast, Los Angeles is dealing with increased numbers of homeless people due to a combination of factors including an inadquete and expensive housing supply. A recent study from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority found that there are nearly 70,000 people living on the streets of the city.

The emergency declaration gives Ms Bass and the city expanded powers to address the crisis in a multitude of ways, though it remains to be seen just how Ms Bass plans to use those powers. In her inagural address, Ms Bass said that the city needs to build new housing.

“We know our mission: We must build housing in every neighborhood,” Ms Bass said. “We cannot continue to overcrowd neighborhoods that are already overcrowded. And the very best way for this to happen is by neighbors working together and deciding where housing should be built. We cannot continue to overcrowd neighborhoods that are already overcrowded.”

Increasing the housing supply may by the most effective long-term strategy for combatting the housing crisis, but Ms Bass has highlighted the need to secure shorter-term housing for unhoused people as well that includes leasing apartments and motel rooms to provide temporary shelter.