Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass visited USC Tuesday to discuss what it means to be a leader in today’s tumultuous political climate while dealing with issues like homelessness. The event, “Being a Mayor in the 21st Century: A Conversation with Michael Tubbs and Mayor Karen Bass,” was hosted by the USC Center for the Political Future.
Elected in 2022, Bass is the first Black woman to serve as mayor of L.A. She previously represented South L.A. as a congresswoman from 2011 to 2022 and before that acted as speaker of the California State Assembly from 2008 to 2010.
As a native Angeleno, she has seen L.A. evolve for better and worse. Particularly, Bass recalled how the homeless crisis was less pressing when she was growing up and only became a major issue beginning in the 80s. Since then, homelessness has risen to over 46,000 people in the city of Los Angeles as of June 2023, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
Bass said her L.A. roots and background in healthcare have fueled her desire to fix this crisis.
“I come at this from a different angle due to my medical background. So, to me, what was the most important was to get people off the street,” Bass said. Prior to her political career, Bass earned her degree as a physician assistant from the USC Keck School of Medicine.
Launching the Inside Safe strategy in 2023, Bass attempted to address homelessness from a different standpoint. Rather than just focusing on re-housing, Bass also wanted to assist individuals with the challenges that follow this transition, such as access to healthcare and social workers.
“To me, the city and the county were not committed to ending homelessness, and I think if that’s not your goal, you end up just managing,” Bass said. “The policy of just housing first — and nobody intended this — but it really resulted in ‘you stay in a tent until we build a building’ and to me, that was just unacceptable.”
Despite her ambitious goals, the Inside Safe initiative has faced obstacles to permanently house individuals. During the 2023 fiscal year, the city of L.A. spent over $32 million dollars on Inside Safe, yet only 108 individuals, accounting for 8% of clients, in the program were permanently housed. The initiative will become even more costly in the 2024 fiscal year with a projected expenditure of over $177 million dollars.
An audit at the end of 2023 from the L.A. City Controller Kenneth Meija also noted that LAHSA struggled with keeping data on program participants and following up on data with interim housing providers.
Bass noted her discontentment with the current state of the initiative and expressed her hope that it will continue to grow.
“I found along the way, there weren’t set standards. I found out the social worker won’t be there for a week or two … I know that we’re putting people in these motels who shouldn’t be there,” she said.
In the near future, Bass said she and her team aim to create safe recreational vehicle parks as additional interim and permanent housing options. She also hopes to regulate and crack down on individuals known as “vanlords” who lease RVs to the homeless.
Bass said she plans to continue doing outreach in the communities she serves. She used to host town halls but has more recently focused on going out into the streets and meeting with individuals one-on-one.
“My best days are the days I get to go out into the street … I really like doing that, going out and talking to the people that are unhoused,” she said.
For students looking to enter politics, Bass encourages taking initiative and being present with your community. Rather than focusing on the next best thing like re-election, Bass emphasizes working for the betterment of the city and its constituents.
“Politicians, when in office, they’re focused on what their next office is gonna be. When you do that, you compromise your ability to take risks and make decisions,” Bass said. “Just do your job. Do a good job. Opportunities will present themselves.”
