Los Angeles mayor asks wealthy to help solve homelessness

At her State of the City address Monday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass asked rich Angelenos to help house homeless people.

Los Angeles has a homeless population of around 46,000, Ms. Bass said.

The city’s Inside Safe initiative, Ms. Bass said, has housed residents in spaces across 47 neighborhoods, getting the homeless away from freeways, parks and sidewalks.

Around 2,600 people have already been moved into hotels and motels as part of the Inside Safe program, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority told the Los Angeles Times.

The cost of getting people into shelters, plus medical treatment, jails, lost tourists and businesses, has led the city to ask the private sector for help.

“Now the rescue phase of an emergency is always expensive. … Motel rooms rented by the night are expensive. … We are asking the most fortunate Angelenos to participate in this effort, with personal, private sector and philanthropic funds, to help us acquire more properties, lower the cost of capital and speed up housing,” Ms. Bass said.

The mayor dubbed the funding program LA4LA. The city aims to move the homeless into temporary housing, and from there into permanent housing, and there are 16,000 affordable housing units coming down the pipeline, Ms. Bass said.

Some of the city’s wealthy have already donated money.

“There needs to be a pathway for people to get back into society, and be proud of themselves and add value to our community,” philanthropist Stephen Cloobeck, who donated $1 million to LA4LA this year, told the L.A. Times.