Mayor Bass Marks Veterans Day as Los Angeles Continues Making Historic Progress on Veterans Homelessness

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LOS ANGELES - Today, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass honored the service and sacrifice of Veterans across the country, while highlighting the historic progress being made to address Veteran homelessness.

"Los Angeles will always honor the sacrifice and patriotism of those who serve our country, and that includes continued action to sustain our work to house our Veterans," said Mayor Bass. "By securing major federal reforms and driving a new and proactive citywide strategy, we've made historic progress in housing our Veterans, and this work will urgently continue into the new year as we launch the next phase of our campaign to urgently bring more Veterans into permanent housing."

On Sunday, November 16, Mayor Bass will host an event recognizing Veterans who have served their country and were successfully housed through the House Our Vets initiative. More information will follow for members of the media to attend.

Since taking office, Mayor Bass has employed new strategies to house Veterans:

• In 2024, Mayor Bass and more than 50 bipartisan Mayors from across the country went to Washington D.C. to successfully advocate for a change to federal policy - under that previous regulation, thousands of Veterans were homeless because they were forced to choose between receiving disability benefits and housing assistance.

• Through the new House Our Vets initiative, a partnership with the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, more than 360 Veterans were housed with a 99% retention rate through the HUD-VASH program. The new campaign brought together the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, the Greater Los Angeles REALTORS and U.S. Vets to join in an effort to get more landlords to accept HUD-VASH vouchers now that the policy has changed.

Mayor Bass has led with unprecedented urgency to address homelessness in L.A. By breaking with the previous status quo, the city has seen a historic, consecutive two year declinein homelessness, a first for Los Angeles. At the end of 2024, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced a 23% decrease in Veteran homelessness. Through her Inside Safe initiative, thousands of Angelenos have been brought inside, permanent housing placements are at an all time high and Los Angeles has seen a 17% decrease in street homelessness since Mayor Bass took office.