LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is sticking to her campaign promise to address the homeless crisis in the city. In fact, she has appeared to double down on her promise, vowing to end street homelessness by 2026.
“My goal would be really to end street homelessness,” Bass said over the weekend in an interview with CNN. “There will still be people in shelters and interim housing, but to at least, not have people dying on our streets.”
Bass said in the interview with CNN that her team has helped 14,000 homeless people off the streets.
Union Rescue Mission CEO Andy Bales applauds Bass for her efforts.
“It’s a dream come true for us because it’s something we’ve been pushing for for years to get people immediately off the streets,” Bales said.
He believes homelessness can be achieved.
“We have to go away from this slow-to-develop, very expensive housing for a few, and move to more immediate, affordable, innovative housing for many, like 3D printed concrete homes, mobile homes, container homes. We can do all of this and expedite it much more quickly,” Bales said.
Interim temporary housing is what Mayor Bass is trying to establish for thousands of people. But Leslie Bosworth, who feeds people without housing, says mental health is critical to solving homelessness.
“We need to start with mental health because a lot of people who are on the streets do have mental issues. And so if we don’t deal with the mental issues, you can try to help them all you want, but they’re going to end up in the same place. So we get to the root of it, which are mental issues,” Bosworth said.
Angelenos we spoke with offered mixed reactions.
“I think they’re lying,” said one woman.
“I think it’s much more complex. They have to go much more deeper to fix this issue,” said one man.
“If she really wants to do it, she can do it,” said another woman FOX 11 spoke with.
