LA Mayor-elect Raman Targets 40,000 Homeless With Voucher Plan After $300 Million Inside Safe Push
Updated
Updated · Los Angeles Times · Nov 7
LA Mayor-elect Raman Targets 40,000 Homeless With Voucher Plan After $300 Million Inside Safe Push
3 articles · Updated · Los Angeles Times · Nov 7
Summary
More than 40,000 people are homeless in Los Angeles as Mayor-elect Nithya Raman proposes scrapping Karen Bass’ Inside Safe program in favor of short-term rental vouchers she says will be cheaper and more effective.
About 6,000 people had been moved into motels and other interim housing through Inside Safe by spring, but the program had cost $300 million and 41% had returned to homelessness by the end of May.
Raman has pledged to cut tents and encampments in half by the 2028 Olympics and move everyone in tents and encampments indoors by the end of her first term, while opening homelessness spending to a full audit.
Her strategy also calls for a fuller accounting of county services, more street medicine teams funded through Medi-Cal, and greater investment in shared housing, case management and affordable housing.
The plan faces political and structural hurdles — from City Council resistance to housing costs, addiction and mental illness — even as homelessness recently fell in Raman’s council district while rising slightly citywide.