Far-Left L.A. Mayor Karen Bass: I’m Moving The Homeless ‘From Tents To Hotels Or Motels’

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said over the weekend that she wants to eliminate the homeless encampments that are plaguing the city’s streets through the state of emergency that she declared on her first day in office.

Bass made the remarks during a Sunday interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” with host Chuck Todd.

Bass claimed that 95% of the city’s 40,000 homeless people would accept taxpayer-funded public housing if it was offered to them.

When asked by Todd if she would allow LAPD and sanitation officers to continue doing sweeps of the encampments, she said, “no” and that she wanted to put the homeless people into hotels.

“No, these are not sweeps at all. This is getting people to move on their own, but then after the person leaves sanitation is absolutely going to have to be there,” she said. “No question about it. But this is not coercing people. This is not ticketing people or incarcerating people. This is moving people from tents to hotels or motels.”

CHUCK TODD: And joining me now from Los Angeles is the former member of Congress and VP short-lister to Joe Biden, by the way, the new mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass. Mayor Bass, congratulations and welcome back to Meet The Press.

MAYOR KAREN BASS: Thank you. Thanks for having me on.

CHUCK TODD: I want to start with what’s going to be different this time. And what I mean by this time is, in 2015 — this was pre-pandemic, obviously — Eric Garcetti declared a version of a state of emergency. Not quite the same as what you declared. Yours is a bit more comprehensive. But it freed up $100 million and tried to tackle the homeless problem that he was dealing with back in 2015. It didn’t work. What’s going to make what you’re doing more successful than what Mayor Garcetti attempted to do?

MAYOR KAREN BASS: Well, I think a few things. First of all, it’s not just about the money. Of course money is needed, but it’s really about the arcane bureaucratic process. You talk to developers and it’s just so difficult to get anything done. So when I declared a state of emergency and issued following executive directives, it basically allows the process to be centralized. It allows time certain for building. Chuck, the other day I did a press conference on a piece of land where the builder had been working for 16 years and had just finally broken ground. So it’s about bursting past the bureaucratic maze and developers having no idea when approvals will be done. So now I’m requiring that approvals and the process be moved within 30 to 60 days.

CHUCK TODD: There’s a few issues that people run into all the time when it comes to dealing with the homeless in the city. The biggest one is, What do you do about people that don’t want to leave, that don’t want to move, that don’t want to go into shelters?

MAYOR KAREN BASS: Well, you know, what we have found in the community organizations that we’re bringing in to do this work is that you can get 95% of the people housed. People will go. It takes a while. You have to do outreach. And what the community programs do is that they work with people who were formerly unhoused. People are unhoused for a variety of different reasons. Some are profoundly mentally ill. Some are profoundly addicted. You have to address the reasons why they wound up unhoused while you house them. So we’re going to launch a program on Tuesday called Inside Safe, which is going to address the people that are in the tents. Now, it’s not going to address everybody, but it is going to address, hopefully, a significant number. But we’re going to put them in motels and hotels immediately. It’s interesting: it’s lessons that were learned from the pandemic. Some community organizations have been trying to get the city to master lease out entire hotels and motels for years.

CHUCK TODD: Are you still going to allow LAPD and sanitation officers to do these sweeps of encampments?

MAYOR KAREN BASS: No, these are not sweeps at all. This is getting people to move on their own, but then after the person leaves sanitation is absolutely going to have to be there. No question about it. But this is not coercing people. This is not ticketing people or incarcerating people. This is moving people from tents to hotels or motels.

CHUCK TODD: We know some of this is a — that you’ve run across quite a bit of mental health challenges here with the homeless population. Mayor Adams, in New York City, is talking about, you know, temporary institutions to help those with mental health problems. You know, do you think we need to bring some institutions

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