Karen Bass blames everyone else for spike in LA – Latest News
Karen Bass advised us all through the first election marketing campaign that the best cause to present her one other 4 years as mayor was that she introduced down homelessness.
That argument has now imploded.
Los Angeles’ Point-in-Time homeless depend is anticipated to show a sharp increase, per the newest report due Friday.
Had that actuality been identified earlier than the June 2 election, the outcome may need been very totally different.
Karen Bass advised us all through the first election marketing campaign that the best cause to present her one other 4 years as mayor was that she introduced down homelessness. Getty Images for Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI)
Los Angeles’ Point-in-Time homeless depend is anticipated to show a sharp increase, per the newest report due Friday. Andy Johnstone for CA Post
The metropolis’s spike in homelessness comes after two years of modestly declining numbers –– and Bass’ sustained touting of these meager positive aspects.
Now, Bass and the City Council are scrambling to elucidate why, regardless of throwing billions of taxpayer {dollars} on the downside, LA’s homeless population is growing.
In a horrendous return on investment, town and county spend a mixed $3 billion a 12 months on homelessness — and get perpetual squalor, The California Post has revealed.
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That’s maddening.
And Bass’ most well-liked narrative — blaming others, together with the Trump administration — is simply pathetic.
The mayor and council members own LA’s homelessness failure.
They perpetually shove taxpayers’ money at packages that fail. Andy Johnstone for CA Post
They perpetually shove taxpayers’ money at packages that fail.
For occasion, LA nonetheless palms hundreds of thousands of {dollars} a 12 months to the troubled LA Homeless Services Authority — even because the county all however shunned the company in 2025 and the Trump administration pulled $200 million in federal money amid a probe of alleged financial mismanagement, conflicts of curiosity and poor contract oversight.
Meanwhile, Bass touts her signature Inside Safe program for shifting 1000’s not less than quickly indoors. But the Point-in-Time knowledge spike in avenue dwelling — as high as an 8% increase — unmasks the bounds of this much-hyped strategy.
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Reality is, an excessive amount of of LA’s homeless spending flows to a “homeless industrial complex” that exploits and entrenches human distress.
Government companies and bloated nonprofits, paid to “help” the homeless with Band-Aids like clean shirts, have a enormous financial incentive to keep the sidewalks full.
So it’s simple to see why as a substitute of actual enchancment, LA stays America’s premier showcase for seen homelessness disaster — a metropolis pockmarked by open drug use, fires in vacant buildings and collapsing high quality of life in once-vibrant neighborhoods.
What’s more, LA’s homelessness numbers could be even larger than reported.
Government companies and bloated nonprofits, paid to “help” the homeless with Band-Aids like clean shirts, have a enormous financial incentive to keep the sidewalks full. Andy Johnstone for CA Post
The Point-in-Time depend, an annual volunteer-driven snapshot, has long confronted questions on accuracy. RAND research have documented vital undercounts in areas like Hollywood, Skid Row and Venice.
The blame for all this dysfunction rests squarely with Bass and council members who routinely vote to waste billions to perpetuate unhealthy coverage.
The “Housing First” model — prioritizing placement with out preconditions — fails to handle the causes of homelessness, which frequently embody long-term substance abuse and mental-health issues.
Without critical remedy pathways, many merely cycle endlessly between shelters and the streets, proving as soon as again that ideology makes a poor substitute for outcomes.
Meanwhile, California’s homelessness audits have flagged poor monitoring of funds, exorbitant per-unit prices for everlasting supportive housing, and underwhelming outcomes from suppliers.
No marvel Bass would quite give attention to Trump, the state, LA County — something however her own file.
Her criticism of the president — she cited rising prices for gasoline, groceries and rent, plus federal funding suspensions –– matches the all-too-familiar progressive playbook: When outcomes falter, externalize blame with enthusiasm.
But slamming Washington for a disaster that’s festered below years of LA’s progressive one-party rule is intellectually dishonest.
Blaming Trump and different “villains” may rally the bottom. But Angelenos deserve leaders who perceive that real compassion requires order, accountability, fiscal self-discipline — and maybe above all, the braveness to desert failed insurance policies.
Until that occurs, the cycle of touting non permanent positive aspects, losing billions and blaming others will proceed.
Richie Greenberg is a political commentator based mostly in San Francisco.
