Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe program is charging ahead, clearing out six more encampments since the homelessness initiative kicked off on Jan. 4, ABC7 reports.
The program directly targeted an encampment in South L.A. located at 87th Street and Western Avenue—one that previously spanned one block. Another one located in the same area—on 99th and Flower—was cleared Tuesday with all 30 individuals on the premise accepting housing.
In addition to this area, Bass’ initiative also cleared two homeless encampments in Venice, one in Mar Vista, one on Cahuenga Boulevard, and another right off of the 101 Freeway in Hollywood.
“It’s a very exciting time because people are very thankful to be leaving the streets,” Bass said in regard to the recent developments.
These clearances represent a hint of change in L.A., with 247 unhoused people being moved into temporary shelters and 40 of them eventually going into permanent housing, according to the city.
But there are an estimated 41,000 homeless people in L.A., so there’s a long way to go before Bass reaches her goal of ensuring that “people can stay inside and safe for good.”
One of the issues the program has faced is general maintenance and the conditions of temporary housing. Some have complaining about the state of a motel being used for temporary housing.
“We did have a problem recently with one of the motels. It is challenging. We’ve been fortunate in the sense that we’ve been able to find motels, but we need so many more rooms than that,” Bass said. “The other thing that’s challenging is that not in every council district are there motels. We don’t want to ship people from one end of the community to the next. We want to keep them nearby where they were.”
Jeff Olivet, the Director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, remains optimistic about Inside Safe, telling ABC7, “I believe right down to my core that we can solve homelessness right here in Los Angeles and if we can solve it here, we can solve it anywhere.”
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