Fourteen candidates are running for L.A. mayor. The top five leading contenders were invited to the forum held in downtown L.A. and hosted by homeless shelter operator Hope the Mission.<\/p>\n
Candidates Spencer Pratt and the Rev. Rae Huang declined to participate.<\/p>\n
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Mayor Karen Bass spoke Monday at the Original Pantry Cafe in downtown L.A. at at event hosted by homeless shelter Hope The Mission. <\/p>\n
Housing First?<\/p>\n
The candidates disagreed on \u201chousing first,\u201d an approach to homelessness assistance that prioritizes getting unhoused people into permanent housing without first requiring them to be sober, employed or meet other conditions.<\/p>\n
Bass said she believes in the policy but argued the city has applied it too rigidly for decades, leaving people unsheltered while they wait years for permanent housing to be built. <\/p>\n
\u201cI agree with the notion of housing first, but I don’t think people should be on the street waiting for you to build something,\u201d Bass said.<\/p>\n
Raman, an L.A. City Council member since December 2020, said the question isn’t what comes first but what each person needs. The biggest gap right now is mental health resources, she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I see someone who’s on the street who has deep mental health challenges, I can’t get any help for them,\u201d Raman said. \u201cI can’t get somebody out there to help them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miller, who is CEO of homelessness nonprofit Better Angels, said L.A. needs to move away from housing-first policies in favor of more temporary shelters coupled with treatment and other support. <\/p>\n
\u201cHousing first doesn’t work,\u201d Miller said. \u201cWe have to stabilize them in interim housing first with services and then move them to permanent housing. <\/p>\n
“That’s the only way we’re gonna keep people off the street.\u201d<\/p>\n
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L.A. City Council member Nithya Raman spoke Tuesday at the Original Pantry Cafe downtown. <\/p>\n
Inside Safe<\/p>\n
Since late 2022, the city has spent more than $390 million on Inside Safe to clear 121 homeless encampments and place about 5,800 people into interim housing, according to the regional Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, known as LAHSA. <\/p>\n
About 25% of those people are currently living in permanent housing, according to LAHSA<\/a>. About 30% of them reside in temporary shelters. About 40% have returned to homelessness. <\/p>\n According to a February report<\/a> by Los Angeles’ city administrative officer, the average nightly cost of an Inside Safe motel room is about $225.81, or roughly $82,420 a year. That\u2019s compared to $86.37 per night for other shelter options.<\/p>\n Bass defended the program but said it needs to bring down costs. She said she\u2019s exploring the possibility of building and operating shelter sites on city-owned land to reduce leasing costs. <\/p>\n Raman said people are staying in temporary shelter for more than a year \u2014 comparing it to being left in an emergency room. <\/p>\n \u201cI believe in encampment resolution,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat I don’t believe in is bringing people indoors and then just leaving them there with no support and no resources.\u201d<\/p>\n Miller said he would try a different approach, tiny-home villages, but acknowledged that ending Inside Safe would take time. <\/p>\n \u201cYou can’t turn it off Day 1 because we\u2019d have too many people that are back on the street,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The average construction cost of a tiny-home village is about $42,000 per unit, according to the nonprofit A-Mark Foundation.<\/a><\/p>\n Adam Miller, CEO of homelessness nonprofit Better Angels, argues L.A. needs a political outsider to get the homelessness crisis under control.<\/p>\n Ending homelessness\u00a0<\/p>\n Each of the candidates expressed a desire to make big reductions in the city’s unhoused population over the next few years, and perhaps eliminate it entirely.<\/p>\n Bass pointed to a 17.5% reduction in street homelessness over two years and said her goal for a second term is to end unsheltered homelessness \u2014 meaning those living on the streets \u2014 not just manage it. <\/p>\n \u201cThere’s no reason for us to have street homelessness by the end of the next four years,\u201d she said. \u201cThere just really isn’t.\u201d<\/p>\n Raman said she shares that ambition. She had already pledged<\/a> to reduce street homelessness by at least 50% before the 2028 Olympics and “eliminate long-term encampments.”<\/p>\n \u201cI think we can end street homelessness in this city,” she said, “but we cannot just pay lip service to it.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Man](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778675062_948_.jpeg\")
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