Homelessness

This week, Mayor Karen Bass held a press conference to reflect on her first year in office as the City of Los Angeles' Mayor. VX News here shares a transcript to the Mayor’s full address and comments. In her address, the Mayor offered a progress report on her many initiatives: the Inside Safe program, her office’s executive directives “streamlining” affordable housing development, the commitments being made to building a green economy, as well as her many public safety initiatives.

As homelessness numbers in the United States rise, no state has escaped untouched by the crisis. In an effort to unify problem solving in the face of such a widespread issue, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, founded in 1932, privately convened recently in Los Angeles to open more collaboration and data sharing on their respective methods for combating the issue. VX News presents this excerpt from a public press conference on the meeting, featuring comments from the Mayors of Reno, Houston, Los Angeles, and Riverside. In the press conference, the mayor’s shared their hopefulness on the utility of the meeting, as well as answered questions from the press on California’s new CARE Courts and the future of Mayor Bass’ Inside Safe program.

Though all of Los Angeles was impacted by COVID, Council District 11, which includes Venice, Brentwood, LAX and much of the Westside coast, felt the loss of retail and tourism revenue particularly strongly. As the district recovers and deals with post-covid and economic pains, among those increased homelessness and greater housing density, constituents are demanding a return to normal. VX News spoke with the district’s new council member, Traci Park, on what’s being done to address these challenges to livability. In the conversation, Park talks about LA’s Sensitive Location Resolution 41.18, the usurpation by the State of local planning, and the need for civic engagement and political transparency.