Mayor Karen Bass proposes $1.3 billion from LA budget to fight homelessness
Mayor Karen Bass Tuesday unveiled her proposed city budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year with funding priorities focused on the city's homelessness crisis, supporting public safety and advancing a "new L.A."
"Building on the success of Inside Safe, my budget includes a $250 million investment to scale Inside Safe citywide," Bass said during Monday's State of the City Address.
The proposed budget will also include a $1.3 billion investment to accelerate the city's momentum on homelessness, she added.
"This is a record for the City of Los Angeles," Bass said. "This is a truly historic City budget commitment -- because much of the state and federal pandemic money from the past couple of years is no longer available."
Through an executive directive and in coordination with the city attorney, Bass' office is working to provide thousands of properties and units for housing for those who are homeless. She said more than 3,000 city-owned properties are being evaluated for housing use.
"And, together with the City Attorney, we are taking bold action to preserve and rehabilitate nearly 2,000 units of housing that the Skid Row Housing Trust said they could no longer manage," Bass said.
Among her funding priorities, Bass said she will work to bolster the Los Angeles Police Department's rank as the number of LAPD officers continues to decrease with concerns it may drop below 9,000.
She also hinted at expanding the city's mental health crisis teams and funding new Mayor's Office of Community Safety, aimed at building a force of community intervention workers, social workers, clinical psychologists and other experts to respond when law enforcement is not required.
"I ask Angelenos to participate with our new Office of Community Safety -- please attend our community meetings, respond to our surveys and polling, so that you are empowered to help decide what your neighborhood needs to be safe," Bass said.
Bass intends to boost staffing the city's fire department, L.A. city workers, and the city's animal services department.