More than 29,000 people sleep outside in L.A., according to official estimates \u2014 a nearly 8% increase over last year. <\/p>\n
Two candidates for mayor are promising to change that, but they have different ideas about how. <\/p>\n
Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman appeared separately at homelessness forums hosted this week by Hope The Mission, a large homeless shelter operator. <\/p>\n
The events were held amid a national spotlight on L.A.\u2019s homelessness crisis. <\/p>\n
This week, a congressional subcommittee held a hearing on allegations of fraud and mismanagement of homelessness funds \u2014 a hearing in which Bass declined to appear.<\/a> The next day, federal authorities announced charges<\/a> against three employees at L.A. homelessness nonprofits in a widening federal investigation of homeless services fraud.<\/p>\n Bass cited L.A.\u2019s homelessness crisis as the reason she sought the city\u2019s top job in 2022. <\/p>\n \u201cI ran because I am always compelled to go toward a crisis,\u201d she said Thursday. <\/p>\n She has made clearing homeless encampments and moving people indoors a top priority as mayor, but fell far short of her pledge to end street homelessness by 2026. <\/p>\n Raman has said founding a local homelessness nonprofit inspired her 2020 L.A. City Council run. For years, Raman was chair of the council committee focused on city homelessness policy. <\/p>\n Both candidates have played major roles in shaping L.A.\u2019s homelessness response in recent years, and they told forum moderators this week that the city\u2019s approach has been dysfunctional. <\/p>\n L.A.\u2019s next mayor will face a barrage of challenges related to homelessness. <\/p>\n Here\u2019s how the candidates said they would handle some of the big ones:<\/p>\n How will they deal with the Trump administration?<\/p>\n The Trump administration has been cracking down on the L.A. region\u2019s administration of homeless services to root out potential financial mismanagement, but also to challenge the local policy approach to homelessness and impose policies it prefers. <\/p>\n Federal officials argue that approaches known as \u201chousing first\u201d and \u201charm reduction\u201d are failing. They favor treatment and enforcement instead. <\/p>\n Bass, a Democrat, skipped a House subcommittee hearing on federal homelessness spending Tuesday, dismissing it as politically motivated. <\/p>\n \u201c\u200aI’m the mayor of the second-largest city in the country, and I don’t have time for foolishness,\u201d Bass said Thursday. \u201cAnd remember, I know these people. It’s a dog and pony show to see who’s gonna get on Fox that night. I was not going to subject myself to that, and I was not going to subject our city to that.\u201d <\/p>\n Bass said her office is cooperating fully by supplying thousands of pages of documents.<\/p>\n Raman said L.A. should be using the courts much more aggressively to challenge federal overreach and protect funding. <\/p>\n \u201c\u200aWe’ve done that less than I would’ve liked here in Los Angeles, but other cities have done that and actually kept their federal dollars in place despite the best efforts of the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n She said the city also has to make sure that funding is spent effectively, arguing L.A. currently has no single person tracking every dollar coming in from the federal government, state government and other sources. <\/p>\n \u201cThat is wrong,\u201d Raman said at a forum on Wednesday. \u201cIf I am mayor \u2014 when I am mayor \u2014 I will ensure that every single dollar that is being given to us is being used to get as many people indoors into safety and to keep them there as effectively as possible.\u201d <\/p>\n What to do about LAHSA?<\/p>\n Both candidates have said they support the city eventually breaking away from LAHSA, the joint city-county homelessness authority. <\/p>\n “The county filed for divorce. Now we file, too,” Bass said on Thursday. <\/p>\n Last year, L.A. County officials voted to remove more than $300 million in annual homelessness funding from LAHSA\u2019s control and to manage those funds itself with a new county department. Bass is now proposing the city create its own, independent \u201ccontinuum of care,\u201d a process she said could take \u201ca couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n