How we got here<\/p>\n
According to the City Administrative Officer\u2019s report<\/a>, citywide homelessness spending reductions of up to 15% are needed in order to divert money toward creating 12,915 new shelter beds or housing units. This requirement is the linchpin of the city\u2019s settlement<\/a> in a 2020 lawsuit brought by the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights<\/a>, a group that alleged the city was systematically failing to address its homelessness crisis.<\/p>\n Learn the ins and outs behind L.A.’s housing crisis.<\/p>\n Sign up for Building Your Block, a seven-issue newsletter course from LAist that explains the obstacles around housing development in L.A. and what you can do to make things better.<\/p>\n Tecle said the city now appears to be pitting the need for new shelter beds against services that don\u2019t count toward the terms of the settlement.<\/p>\n \u201cSafe parking is not a strategy that fits into traditional boxes of homelessness services,\u201d Tecle said. \u201cWe’re not a shelter in a traditional sense.\u201d<\/p>\n But with more than 11,000 people in L.A. living in vehicles, the city should be trying to expand the number of designated parking lots that provide bathrooms, security and case management to people trying to find their way back into housing, Tecle said.<\/p>\n Until the first safe parking site in L.A. launched in 2018, Tecle said, \u201cthere was no program that was serving people directly that were experiencing vehicular homelessness.\u201d He said his organization now oversees 143 parking spots across the city.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was this understanding of a systemic gap that needed to be filled,\u201d he said. \u201cWe feel like we’ve shown that value to this point, and we want to continue to do so into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Report lays out a zero-sum funding game<\/p>\n Advocates for unhoused people disagreed with the framing of the city spending report. They argued the court has never required the city to cut vital programs for people living on the streets.<\/p>\n \u201cThe city’s CAO is recommending cutting essential services for unhoused folks to meet that [settlement] obligation,\u201d said Shayla Myers, an attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles<\/a> who represented the interests of unhoused people in the case. \u201cBut that’s not the result of this litigation. That is the result of city planning.\u201d<\/p>\n Myers said the city could instead divert funds from expensive encampment sweeps or look toward lower cost ways to help Angelenos get housed. The CAO report identified motel rooms through Mayor Karen Bass\u2019 signature program Inside Safe<\/a> as particularly expensive, costing $225 per night on average. Other interim housing units cost about $86 per night.<\/p>\n City Council members sounded frustrated with the report\u2019s recommendations in a Feb. 4 meeting of the council\u2019s Housing and Homelessness Committee.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are faced with an extraordinarily strange set of recommendations here,\u201d said committee chair Nithya Raman. \u201cRecommendations that, to me, seem to fly in the face of what this council has said we\u2019ve wanted, which is to expand the number of people that we are serving.\u201d<\/p>\n Raman sought to reassure homeless services providers that none of the proposed cuts were imminent.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing in this report is a certain action that this council is going to take,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In a statement to LAist, Raman, who is running for mayor<\/a> against incumbent Karen Bass, a former ally, said there would be time for further debate before the city adopts its next annual budget in June.<\/p>\n \u201cBetween now and then, my focus is on protecting effective frontline services, meeting our legal obligations, and making sure any changes actually help us house more people \u2014 not fewer,\u201d Raman said.<\/p>\n What\u2019s on the potential chopping block<\/p>\n The report said the city could save about $15.7 million by cutting street hygiene programs, $3.6 million by defunding 11 safe parking sites, and nearly $5 million by cutting support for USC\u2019s Street Medicine program<\/a>.<\/p>\n Leaders of the USC program declined to comment for this story.<\/p>\n Participants at one Safe Parking LA site in West L.A. said shutting down the program would put them further from securing stable housing.<\/p>\n Daya Baran sits behind the wheel of his Mercedes Benz where he has stayed following a divorce and job loss.<\/p>\n Daya Baran \u2014 a former investment banker who took to living in his Mercedes Benz following a divorce, job loss and eviction \u2014 said he rarely got enough sleep before coming to this site.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are always people who actually try to steal, try to rob you while you’re in your car,\u201d Baran said. \u201cIt’s safer here. You know the people. There’s security here. There’s restrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Baran said, there are moments when he craves a real mattress instead of his car\u2019s back seat. At the gym, he\u2019ll sometimes take a breather from working out and lie down on a yoga mat.<\/p>\n \u201cI stretch out,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that’s when I realize, I wish I was in a bed.\u201d<\/p>\n Providers say LAHSA\u2019s evaluation is flawed<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771334048_439_.jpeg\")
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