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LA Mayor Karen Bass tours an Inside Safe initiative location. | Photo courtesy of Mayor Karen Bass/Twitter
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A city program aiming to provide housing to those living in encampments in Los Angeles is launching in Miracle Mile, Mayor Karen Bass and Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky announced Thursday.
The specific encampments are located near the intersection of Sixth Street and Fairfax Avenue.
According to Bass’ office, the Inside Safe program will work to identify the “highest need encampments” that have a chronic and high demand for services. Using citywide coordination between various departments and agencies, the plan calls for identifying interim housing and eventually permanent housing resources for each person living in the encampments.
Bass announced the program after declaring a local state of emergency over homelessness in her first week in office. Officials with the mayor’s office said more than 100 people were housed as a result of the first two Inside Safe sites in Hollywood and Venice.
“Inside Safe is about putting quick fixes aside,” Bass said in a statement. “Together — with the county and service providers, this new program is a real solution that proves there is hope in Los Angeles. Together, we will confront this crisis by bringing unhoused Angelenos inside for good.”
The initiative also launched in South Los Angeles earlier this month.
Yaroslavsky and Bass announced the initiative a day after Yaroslavsky voted against expanding zones where the city’s anti-camping law would apply. She cited a lack of coordinated engagement strategy in making credible offers of housing and services across the city’s 15 districts, and criticized how the 41.18 ordinance had been enforced in her district prior to her taking office in December.
“For many of the people brought inside today, tonight will be their first night sleeping in a bed in years,” Yaroslavsky said of Inside Safe. “And tomorrow, they will wake up with services and stability to help them get back on their feet.”
