Los Angeles mayor discusses strategy to counteract alarming increase in homelessness
Karen Bass:
And you know what? You are so right.
My biggest concern right now is that, since the COVID protections, like the eviction moratorium, the rental assistance and all of that, since those programs have gone away, I'm actually worried that we're going to experience another increase in homelessness in Los Angeles.
At the end of the day, there has to be a comprehensive approach. We need to prevent homelessness to begin with. So, for example, our City Council passed tenant protections. But we need to make sure that the public knows about that. So we're doing grassroots outreach, as well as mainstream outreach, and then, again, putting people into temporary housing, which are hotels and motels.
One of the things that we have not encountered really at all are people refusing the housing. And that was one of the biggest myths around, that people are on the street because they choose to be there, because they're all strung out on drugs. As a matter of fact, we have had the opposite problem.
When we go to move people out of an encampment, we plan for 20 people, and the day that we're moving, folks, 30 people show up. So we have learned to rent additional rooms. Now, we have had a few examples of people refusing, but it has been extremely rare.
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