Los Angeles mayor declares state of emergency on homelessness as first official act

After being sworn into office on Sunday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced that her first official act as mayor of the city would be to declare a state of emergency on homelessness. 

Bass said that the declaration would recognize that there is a homelessness crisis in the city, which has more than 40,000 homeless people.  

“Today, too many Angelenos have no choice but to crowd multiple families into one home, and to work multiple jobs just to barely pay rent,” Bass said during her inauguration speech at the Microsoft Theater downtown.

“Tragically, our city has earned the shameful crown as being home to the most crowded neighborhoods in the nation – Pico Union, South L.A., East L.A., the East Valley,” she added. “And Angelenos, we know our mission – we must build housing in every neighborhood.”

Bass’s plans to deal with the homelessness crisis include providing housing for more than 15,000 homeless people by the end of the year and ending several of the tent encampments in the city. 

Providing housing was one of the key topics in her speech, which claimed that the emergency declaration would help break new ground to maximize our ability to urgently move people inside, and do so for good."

"It will create the structure necessary for us to have a true, unified, and citywide strategy to set us on the path to solve homelessness," Bass 

Bass was sworn in as the 43rd mayor of Los Angeles, as well as the first woman and second black person to serve in that role. Vice President Kamala Harris administered the oath at Los Angeles City Hall. 

"Los Angeles has called me to serve at an inflection point in our history," Bass said. "No matter what, we never give up. We have never given up and that’s our LA magic."