While Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass says she’s hoping to dramatically reduce homelessness by the time the city hosts the 2028 Olympics, there could be around 30,000 homeless people on the streets then, an I-Team investigation found.
“It would be awful if that were the case, but I want you to know that we're going to do everything to make sure that it’s not,” Bass said.
Despite billions in taxpayer dollars already spent on the homelessness crisis, the number of people moved off the streets into permanent housing remains very small.
According to the mayor’s office, the city of LA spent $1.3 billion to reduce homelessness in the 2023-2024 fiscal year. This fiscal year, the city is budgeted to spend around $950 million.
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This year’s official homeless count, done by the LA Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), showed a 2.2% drop in the number of unhoused on LA’s streets, meaning 45,252 people remain unsheltered.
“A 2.2% drop in homelessness, for hundreds of millions of dollars of spending? We’re moving at a glacial pace to solve this issue,” said Hollywood resident Levi Freeman.
Freeman lives in a condo not far from the Hollywood Walk of Fame, an area packed with tourists, and says every day he walks by encampments littered with trash and needles.
“I'm just so tired of the amount of garbage and filth and having to feel unsafe because of the drug use. It’s terrifying,” Freeman said.
The cornerstone of Mayor Bass’ efforts to get the homeless off the streets is her Inside Safe program, slated to cost taxpayers $185 million this year.
Inside Safe clears encampments and offers to shuttle the unhoused to motel rooms, promising to find them permanent housing within six months.
The NBC4 I-Team has been following seven homeless people taken to motels last year by Inside Safe, like Faith Stephens, but most appear to remain in motels, sometimes costing taxpayers $3,200 a month per room.
“I’m safe, don’t get me wrong, but I mean it’s depressing being in this motel for so long,” Stephens said.
The mayor’s website says Inside Safe has moved 2,870 homeless people indoors since January 2023 but has placed only 609 of them into permanent housing. That means about 2,000 of them remain stuck in expensive motel rooms.
“These numbers are inadequate,” Bass told the I-Team, “But we have demonstrated that people are willing to leave the streets.”
Last month, Governor Newsom signed an emergency order for cities across California to clear all homeless encampments quickly, saying, “There are no longer any excuses.”
Bass, however, has not acted on the order and worries it would just result in shuffling the homeless from one area to another until there is more permanent housing built.
According to the mayor’s office, up to 4,000 new housing units are becoming available each year. That means there could still be around 30,000 homeless people in LA by the time of the 2028 Olympics.
When asked by the I-Team what homelessness in LA will look like in 2028, she said, “I wish I had a crystal ball, so I cannot give you a definitive number, but the goal is a dramatic reduction in street homelessness.”
But the pace of change is too slow for some housed residents, like Levi Freeman of Hollywood.
“It’s time for people to stand up and to demand results for the amount of money that’s being spent,” Freeman said.
