The mayor of Los Angeles proposed a plan to address the city’s growing homelessness crisis by asking the wealthy residents to help purchase homes for the homeless.
Mayor Karen Bass touted her program that has transitioned over 21,000 homeless individuals into temporary shelters.
“Right now, we’re working to move past nightly rentals,” Bass said. “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.”
“This is the mission of our new capital campaign, LA4LA.”
“I will just not accept this, and our city can’t afford to accept it,” she said.
However, she said it was too expensive for taxpayers alone.
She implored the city’s wealthy to donate private funds through an initiative called LA4LA to help acquire more properties and house the homeless faster.
“LA4LA can be a sea change for Los Angles, an unprecedented partnership to confront this emergency, an example of disrupting the status quo to build a new system to save lives,” Bass said.
Bass emphasized the crisis has impacted the city with businesses and customers leaving due to safety concerns.
The plan relies on private sector generosity.
Billions have been spent on homelessness in LA but the numbers continue rising.
A federal report found US homelessness increased 12% in a year to over 650,000 people, the highest since 2007. Addressing the growing crisis remains a challenge.
“Homelessness should not exist in the United States,” HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge wrote on X.
“The data released today underscores the urgent need for support for proven solutions and strategies that help people quickly exit homelessness and that prevent homelessness in the first place,” she said.
