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<\/p>\nIt was a risky move and Jonathan Torres knew it, but he did it anyway. He let an out-of-town guest stay with him in his room.<\/p>\n
Torres, 40, had been living at the Highland Park Motel as part of Inside Safe, Mayor Karen Bass\u2019 flagship program to combat homelessness. He and his neighbors, many of them from a downtown encampment, were told that visitors were not allowed.<\/p>\n
Still, Torres kept having people over. After the third violation, he said, the facility kicked him out.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jonathan Torres spent about two years in a city-leased motel in Highland Park. He told The Times he was kicked out of the facility in December.<\/p>\n
(Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nobody\u2019s fault but my own, but I just feel it\u2019s unfair,\u201d said Torres, who now lives in a tent in Chinatown. \u201cIn the real world, you\u2019re allowed to have people come over. You have visitors. That\u2019s part of keeping your sanity, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n
Los Angeles has spent more than $300 million on Inside Safe since Bass launched the program in December 2022, clearing scores of homeless encampments and moving about 5,800 people into interim housing \u2014 mostly hotels and motels. The goal was to get each of those people into permanent housing, typically taxpayer-funded apartments.<\/p>\n
But even as the mayor\u2019s initiative brings more people indoors, a growing number are winding up back on the street.<\/p>\n
About This Story<\/p>\n
The Times\u2019 reporting on Mayor Karen Bass\u2019 Inside Safe program was undertaken as part of the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism\u2019s 2025 Data Fellowship.<\/p>\n
The longer the program exists, the greater the share of participants who have returned to \u201cunsheltered\u201d homelessness, according to monthly dashboards<\/a> which were posted by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, or LAHSA, and analyzed by The Times.<\/p>\n Jeremiah Flores, center, packs up his belongings during an Inside Safe operation in North Hollywood last month.<\/p>\n In 2023, at the program\u2019s one-year mark<\/a>, nearly 20% had returned to the street, according to numbers posted by LAHSA at the time.<\/p>\n Halfway into Bass\u2019 four-year term, the figure had climbed above 30%.<\/p>\n In December, as the program finished its third year, about 40% of the people who had gone indoors \u2014 2,300 of the 5,800 \u2014 were back on the street, according to LAHSA\u2019s dashboard. That includes people who were kicked out of their housing or disappeared from the system altogether.<\/p>\n The growing exodus reflects the challenges Bass faces while trying to help some of the city\u2019s neediest residents, many of whom struggle with mental health conditions, substance use issues or major physical ailments.<\/p>\n Workers with Mayor Karen Bass\u2019 Inside Safe program clean up a homeless encampment along Hollywood Boulevard in 2024.<\/p>\n (Brian van der Brug \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Bass, asked about the worrisome trend, said she believes that Inside Safe participants need more services to address those issues. She also said she suspects that the longer people stay, the more likely they are to violate the rules and face expulsion.<\/p>\n The goal of Inside Safe is to find permanent homes within 90 days, with a maximum stay of six months, according to the written agreement issued by the city to each participant.<\/p>\n At this point, the average stay is 362 days \u2014 just shy of a year, according to recent LAHSA figures.<\/p>\n Bass did not offer any definitive conclusions, saying the city now has outside researchers assessing the problem.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s critically important that we look at the people who left, why they left [and] what do we need to do strengthen the interim housing that we have,\u201d she said. \u201cI have my opinions about it, but the opinions have to be based in science.\u201d<\/p>\n Bass has staked much of her reelection campaign on her handling of the homelessness crisis, which she made a top priority<\/a> as soon as she took office. She credits Inside Safe with producing a 17.5% drop<\/a> in \u201cunsheltered homelessness\u201d \u2014 people living outdoors or in their vehicles \u2014 over a two-year span. That number fell from about 33,000 to nearly 27,000, according to the most recent homeless count<\/a>.<\/p>\n Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass prepares to leave a homeless encampment along the San Diego (405) Freeway in Van Nuys targeted by Inside Safe in July. \u201cThe homeless should never be living in these conditions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n By clearing encampments, Inside Safe also benefits the surrounding community, making sidewalks more accessible and reducing the number of encampment fires, Bass said. <\/p>\n UCLA Law School professor emeritus Gary Blasi, an expert on homelessness, said the program has become too expensive to justify the results \u2014 and is in need of \u201ca thorough re-engineering.\u201d<\/p>\n Blasi said there were never enough vouchers and low-cost apartments to provide permanent housing to Inside Safe participants in a timely way. As a result, the city has been paying for them to live in expensive motel rooms for long stretches, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce they started having people in interim housing for nine months or a year, that should have rang some alarm bells, because that\u2019s just not sustainable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Last summer, the Inside Safe program cleared away a large homeless encampment next to the San Diego Freeway in Van Nuys. Some residents went to the Budget Inn in North Hills.<\/p>\n Inside Safe participants also face a wide array of rules. They are barred from leaving the premises for three consecutive days without prior approval. Alcohol and illegal drugs are prohibited in their rooms, which are inspected multiple times a day.<\/p>\n Participants also are frequently barred from bringing in outside food, to keep from attracting roaches, mice and other pests.<\/p>\n \u201cThe rules are dumb. They treat houseless people like children. They don\u2019t give people agency,\u201d said Paisley Mares, who lives in an RV in the San Fernando Valley and has several friends who took part in the program.<\/p>\n Executives with the nonprofit groups that run the Inside Safe facilities said the restrictions are needed to protect residents, keeping them on track to find permanent housing.<\/p>\n Violence, threats of violence and property damage are prohibited, and can result in immediate removal from the program. The ban on guests is designed to prevent people from being physically attacked, sexually assaulted or engaging in high-risk behavior, such as drug use, behind closed doors, those nonprofit leaders said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are bringing people indoors, mostly from encampments, where drugs are often the trade of the street. There is also often physical violence. That\u2019s the way people survive on the streets,\u201d said John Maceri, chief executive officer of the nonprofit the People Concern, which runs two Inside Safe motels in Hollywood. \u201cAll of those behaviors don\u2019t stop when people come into an Inside Safe setting.\u201d<\/p>\n Executives at the People Concern estimate that 50% to 65% of the shelter clients they work with \u2014 not just for Inside Safe, but other homeless housing programs \u2014 have serious issues with drugs or alcohol. The number with serious mental health issues, particularly trauma, is also \u201cvery high,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n Inside Safe providers acknowledged that motel rooms can be a huge adjustment, leaving people feeling lonely and isolated. They said they work closely with participants to improve their behavior \u2014 and turn to expulsion only as a last resort.<\/p>\n \u201cMy goal is never to exit anyone to the streets,\u201d said Joseph Bradford III, chief executive officer of BARE Truth, which runs two Inside Safe motels on the Eastside. \u201cI want to keep people inside until they find permanent housing.\u201d<\/p>\n By now, Inside Safe operations are a well-oiled machine. Sanitation trucks roll up to encampments. Traffic officers cordon off the sidewalk with yellow tape. Encampment residents lug their bags onto a bus and head to their destinations.<\/p>\n Robert Martinez, 40, moved to a Budget Inn in North Hills last summer from an encampment near the 405 Freeway. He had been homeless for about five years and jobless even longer, he said.<\/p>\n Martinez, who used to work at a water filtration company, said the Inside Safe motel was better than the street. Still, he chafed at the rules. He wanted his children to visit, which was not permitted.<\/p>\n In November, after learning that a beloved uncle had died, Martinez left the motel for several days \u2014 and didn\u2019t \u201cwant to be around anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n When he returned, he said, program staffers informed him he\u2019d been away more than 72 hours and would have to leave.<\/p>\n \u201cI had 30 minutes to get my stuff,\u201d said Martinez, who has been living on a sidewalk in Van Nuys.<\/p>\n Erica Y. Pena, left, and Jose Monteon at a homeless encampment in Van Nuys. Monteon told The Times he spent about two months in an Inside Safe motel last year.<\/p>\n (David Butow \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n Jose Monteon, 29, moved into the same motel as part of the same Inside Safe operation. He said he was kicked out two months later, after program managers accused him of fighting and making threats.<\/p>\n Monteon, who has spent some nights sleeping his car, denied getting physical. But he admitted expressing frustration over the theft of his bicycle and other possessions.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, I said some s\u2014. But I never said it to a specific person,\u201d he said. \u201cI said \u2018Whoever I find out is taking my s\u2014, I\u2019m going to stab their b\u2014 ass.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Monteon corrected himself. \u201cMy bad \u2014 poke. I didn\u2019t say stab, I said poke.\u201d<\/p>\n Ken Craft, whose nonprofit supervises the Budget Inn, declined to discuss specific cases. But he said his staff gives Inside Safe participants three chances \u2014 unless they have engaged in threats or violence \u2014 and tries to find another place for them to go.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re trying to end homelessness, not have people recycle back to homelessness,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Even with its challenges, Inside Safe has been gradually moving a greater percentage of its residents into permanent housing, where they are no longer governed by such a wide array of rules.<\/p>\n In December, about one out of every four people who participated in Inside Safe since its inception was in permanent housing, according to that month\u2019s LAHSA dashboard. Two years earlier, that figure was about 15%.<\/p>\n Once the program\u2019s hotels, motels and other temporary lodging are factored in, about 55% were in some form of housing.<\/p>\n![\"Jeremiah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775384710_98_.jpeg\")
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