Despite $300m effort, 40% of L.A. Homelessness Program participants return to streets

Los Angeles, California, has a housing problem. Mayor Karen Bass started taking steps in 2022 to address it, issuing an executive order immediately after taking office to launch the Inside Safe program, which was set to cost $300 million in an attempt to give residents an alternative.

But, four years later, some structural issues have caused 40% of the residents to leave the program and return to the streets.

Bass is a divisive figure in Los Angeles. Her response to the Palisades fires already made her a disliked figure among the city’s elite residents. To add salt to the wound, LA is home to some of the most famous people on the planet, so when Bass is criticized, she ends up facing off with the global fanbases of people like Khloe Kardashian.

But it’s not just the rich people of LA who have an issue with how she’s running the city. The homeless residents themselves also don’t quite agree with how the Inside Safe program is being run. According to the program’s website, each Inside Safe site “is overseen by a nonprofit service provider that administers comprehensive case management, housing navigation, and meals.” The city also assures that “hundreds of Inside Safe participants have been housed in life-saving permanent housing.”

“We need to do to strengthen the interim housing that we have”

A 60% success rate is not the worst return for a pilot program. But on the other coast, Mayor Zohran Mamdani is also facing criticism for social programs that some see as too expensive with little return. So, to preemptively criticize such approaches across the country, Bass is now facing the brunt of that scrutiny — almost as a test case for whether similar programs should spread.

Bass is already looking into what issues prevented a higher success rate. According to The Independent, she said, “It’s critically important that we look at the people who left, why they left, [and] what do we need to do to strengthen the interim housing that we have. I have my opinions about it, but the opinions have to be based in science.”

Some community members in the program attributed their decision to leave to “unfair” rules, such as a ban on guests. According to nonprofit leaders, though, that rule in particular exists to keep members safe.

One participant of Inside Safe told the media, “It’s nobody’s fault but my own, but I just feel it’s unfair. In the real world, you’re allowed to have people come over. You have visitors. That’s part of keeping your sanity, you know?”

Some experts also added that there were not enough low-cost housing options and housing vouchers to provide permanent housing for members in the program. Which means the conversion rate from short-term motel stays to permanent housing was never going to hit 100%, no matter what the rules were or how efficient the program was.

Bass spokesperson Kolby Lee responded to the criticism, saying, “The bottom line is that before Mayor Bass took office, past city leaders didn’t even bother with a comprehensive encampment strategy. Now, after so many years of increases, her new program is driving an almost 18 percent reduction in street homelessness.”