Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass made her top priority clear by her first action in office: declaring a homeless state of emergency. In her second week in office, she launched a program to move people living on the streets in tents into hotel and motel rooms.
Capital & Main spoke with University of Southern California sociology professor Manuel Pastor about Bass’ prospects for addressing the city’s ongoing humanitarian catastrophe: 42,000 unhoused people and five of them dying on the streets of L.A. County each day. Pastor, a longtime observer of Los Angeles politics, described Bass, who was considered as a vice presidential candidate for President Biden, as a gifted politician with an unprecedented national profile for a first-term mayor. But he also sounded a note of caution about setting expectations too high. Bass has pledged to bring 17,000 people indoors in her first year.
