From Venice to downtown Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe program moved some 1,200 homeless people out of encampments into motels and hotels during her first four months in office. But only 70 people have moved from those temporary accommodations into permanent housing, Bass said recently. That’s a number she rightly finds disappointing.
Of course, it’s not entirely surprising; Los Angeles has a crippling shortage of housing for homeless people and affordable housing in general. But the pace at which Inside Safe participants — or any homeless person eligible for a rent voucher — are housed should pick up when, as the mayor said, “we have hundreds of vacancies in permanent supportive housing.”
New permanent supportive-housing developments are generally not sitting half-empty. Developers know when a property will open. Service providers and homeless services officials can start lining up prospective tenants in advance. The vacancies Bass is talking about are created, mostly, when tenants in permanent supportive housing leave their unit or die. But some of those empty units stay empty for quite awhile, according to developers and city housing officials.
