By Frank Stolze/LAist
Originally Published April 16th, 2024
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass delivered her State of the City address Monday, urging the business and philanthropic communities to do more to help fund the building of affordable housing for thousands of unhoused Angelenos.
The mayor touted her current efforts on homelessness, including declaration of a state of emergency and the signature Inside Safe initiative. She said her administration and L.A. County together had housed people who had been living outside in 47 different neighborhoods.
But a record 46,000 people remain unhoused in the city alone, and Bass said she is looking to the private sector to play a bigger role in addressing the crisis.
She introduced a new capital campaign called LA4LA.
“We are asking the most fortunate Angelenos to participate in this effort, with personal, private sector and philanthropic funds — to help us acquire more properties, lower the cost of capital and speed up housing,” Bass told an audience of government, business and community leaders inside City Council chambers. “We have brought the public sector together — and now we must prevail on the humanity and generosity of the private sector.”
The cost of homelessness
Details of the program were not released, including whether the new campaign has specific monetary or housing unit goals. But Sarah Dusseault, the mayor’s lead strategist for LA4LA, said attracting more private capital to purchase, lease or build housing could drive down the cost per unit to less than $300,000. The cost now is double that.
“There’s so much capital on the sidelines that can invest in the thousands and thousands of housing units we need,” said Dusseault. “We cannot solve the housing and homelessness crisis alone with just government. We have to include the private sector.”
Initial reaction to the program from some members of the audience was positive.
“We need all hands on deck,” Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez said during an interview after Bass’ speech.
Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, called the mayor “the biggest cheerleader that we could possibly have” and “the biggest fundraiser that the city could have.”
Bass said the ongoing cost of homelessness is enormous.
“Beyond the human toll, we all pay the cost of the thousands and thousands of fire, paramedic and police calls. The cost of each overdose, of each emergency room visit, of each night in county jail — each of which is a human tragedy,” she said.
Major budget concerns
The mayor delivered her speech as the city faces a projected $476 million budget deficit.
Bass said she would seek to address the deficit largely by eliminating vacant positions in city departments.
“Carrying thousands of vacant positions on the books simply because they were there the year before? I want to end that,” she said. “So this year, we will eliminate these ghost positions, while we preserve core services.”
The mayor said she plans to release her proposed budget next week.
Several council members, including Tim McOsker, welcomed the idea of eliminating vacancies, but said it would likely not be enough to address the deficit.
Even eliminating department budgets for vacancies could produce service cuts, McOsker said.
“That is money that is used by those departments for a range of things — whether those are unexpected costs or services,” he added.
Climate change
In her speech, Bass also announced the creation of a new “climate cabinet” that would create new plans to address climate change at key city departments and “to make sure our city continues to lead — and that includes making Los Angeles a 100% clean energy city by 2035.”
New police chief
One of the most important things a mayor does is appoint the chief of police. Bass gave a nod to the ongoing process to do that. Chief Michel Moore retired at the end of February. Chief Dominic Choi is serving as interim head of the department.
“I’ve been meeting with rank-and-file officers, business organizations, community leaders and community members to ask them directly what they want to see in the next chief,” she said.
The new chief will face a serious recruitment crisis. The number of officers has dropped below 9,000 from its authorized strength of 9,500.
Watch the speech
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This report is reprinted with permission from Southern California Public Radio. © 2024 Southern California Public Radio. All rights reserved.
