Mayor Bass, City Councilmembers Announce New Direction for Homelessness Services in L.A.

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LOS ANGELES - Mayor Karen Bass today was joined by Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Councilmember Imelda Padilla, and Councilmember Tim McOsker to announce a new direction for homelessness services in Los Angeles. For the first time, the City of Los Angeles will be able to control who gets housed in permanent supportive housing and other affordable housing units that are funded and paid for by city taxpayers.

The move comes after Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, Chair of the Homelessness and Health Committee, introduced a motion instructing the City Administrative Officer (CAO) to draft a binding agreement with the County of Los Angeles on the transition of key homelessness systems, the Homelessness Management Information System (HMIS) and the Coordinated Entry System (CES) under the Los Angeles Continuum of Care (LACOC), a regional body made up of 85 cities and the County of Los Angeles, to oversee federal funding for homelessness, data collection on the homeless count across the County, and manage placement into permanent housing solutions.

"For too long, homelessness in L.A. has been managed by a tangle of city, county, and regional agencies, which has made it hard for anyone to be held accountable - today we're taking a monumental step to fix this," said Mayor Bass. "I am proud that, for the first time, the City of Los Angeles will finally be able to address the policies that have not prioritized Angelenos for the housing in our own backyard and administer a part of the system that decides how and when people on our own streets are housed. This is historic."

Currently, 91% of the housing units in the City of Los Angeles assigned to people experiencing homelessness are being offered to households across the County, with no preference provided to unhoused in the City of Los Angeles. Under Mayor Bass' leadership, the City has secured a tentative agreement with the County to reshape current policies to allow the City to have a stronger voice in policy-setting for the LACOC and directly administer the process of housing people in the City of Los Angeles.

Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson said the agreement will help connect the housing the City builds with the Angelenos who need it. "The City is building the housing, and when those doors open, we want them open for our residents who are living on our streets."

"This is an important step toward bringing greater accountability and transparency to our homelessness system," said Councilmember Imelda Padilla, Chair of the Housing Committee. "As we continue to advance policies, secure funding and build more housing across Los Angeles, we must also ensure that Angelenos experiencing homelessness are prioritized for the housing being built in their own city."

"People waiting for housing should not get lost between agencies," said Councilmember Jurado, Chair of the Homelessness and Health Committee. "We've worked with our County partners to give the City a meaningful role and make clear who is responsible for what. Our shared responsibility is to help people get housed and make every public dollar count."

"The City of Los Angeles is home to both a majority of the region's people experiencing homelessness and the vast majority of the housing and beds needed to address this crisis," said Councilmember Tim McOsker. "It only makes sense that the City has the information and authority necessary to connect our residents with the beds we've worked so hard to create. That's what we fought for, and I'm pleased to see that we've been able to work with our County partners to reach an initial agreement that recognizes that responsibility. Now it's up to both the City and County to follow through on these commitments, hold one another accountable, and make sure our common understanding translates into real results for the people who are counting on us."

The City of Los Angeles and its tax payers have built permanent affordable housing solutions and invested in health services, outreach teams, and interim housing solutions. In fact, with more than 10,000 affordable housing units built in the past four years, the City has surpassed affordable housing production across the County by more than two times. Added to that, nearly 50,000 units are being accelerated through the pipeline as a result of Mayor Bass' Executive Directive 1, which she signed in her first week in office.

Under Mayor Bass, the City of Los Angeles has:

• Launched the first citywide strategy to resolve homelessness encampments. To date, Inside Safe has brought more than 6,200 people inside with connection to services through nearly 150 operations.

• Invested in Street Medicine approaches, successfully conducting more than 20,000 patient visits in less than two years.

• Signed Executive Directive 1 to slash red tape and streamline the approval of 100% affordable housing. In December 2025, the City Council voted unanimously in favor of making the directive a permanent city ordinance. Currently, nearly 50,000 units of affordable housing are in the pipeline.

• Successfully built more than 10,000 units of affordable housing across Los Angeles - four times more affordable housing units built yearly compared to the previous five years.

• Implemented the Citywide Housing Incentive Program (CHIP), the largest local rezoning program in modern history, creating the capacity for half a million new homes and opens up more of the city to housing - along major corridors, near transit, and in neighborhoods where people already live and work.

• Signed into law the first update to Los Angeles' Rent Stabilization Ordinance in 40 years.

• Expanded the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance citywide to convert vacant office buildings and parking lots into housing, which could create more than 43,000 new homes.

• Advanced a research-proven eviction and homelessness prevention program through the Mayor's Fund.

• Helped more than 1,300 veterans and their families secure permanent housing through her House Our Vets initiative.

• Issued Executive Directive 19 to modernize and streamline how the City reviews and processes building applications, responding directly to the barriers that applicants, developers, and contractors have identified as impediments to building in Los Angeles.