Mayor Bass’ Inside Safe Team Brings 40 Angelenos Inside in South LA’s Chesterfield Square

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LOS ANGELES - Mayor Karen Bass helped 40 unhoused Angelenos transition from the streets into safe, stable housing through a successful Inside Safe operation in Chesterfield Square in South LA yesterday. In coordination with Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, the Inside Safe Field Intervention Team connected residents of the encampment with interim housing, medical care, and supportive services while clearing tents and debris from the area.

Photos and b-roll here.

One of those residents was Vanessa alongside her dog, Solo, who had been living at the encampment for 11 years. Inside Safe is giving them an opportunity for a fresh start.

"When they came last week, I wasn't here, but I left my information with a friend. You guys still came, you helped me, and now I'm getting housing," Vanessa shared. "I'm more than appreciative. I'm gonna do it big!"

This is the 146th Inside Safe operation, which to date has transitioned more than 6,500 unsheltered Angelenos into interim housing and removed more than 200 RVs from city streets.

Today's Inside Safe intervention occurred at two locations in Chesterfield Square: an alley at the corner of 54th Street and Van Ness Avenue and an industrial business corridor near Gage Avenue and St Andrew's Pl. This community has long been one of South LA's most vibrant neighborhoods, with families who have lived on the same blocks for generations, a busy commercial district along Western and Slauson Avenues, and neighbors who look out for one another.

"Chesterfield Square reflects the resilience of a community that refused to be counted out,"said Mayor Bass. "Families deserve safe streets, small businesses deserve the chance to thrive, and the people who were living on these sidewalks deserve a safe place indoors. That's what Inside Safe is all about."

"I want to thank Mayor Karen Bass for her commitment to this area, and the neighbors who have stayed vigilant and reported concerns. This work is a reflection of what's possible when City leadership and residents work together to address concerns in the community," said Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson.

In addition to addressing longstanding encampments and bringing Angelenos inside, Mayor Bass is leading prevention efforts so that more Angelenos don't fall into homelessness in the first place. Mayor Bass' administration has 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. Since taking office, Mayor Bass has used her executive power to cut red tape and eliminate the bureaucratic barriers that have slowed housing production in Los Angeles for decades, including:

• Signing Executive Directive 1 during her first week in office 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.

• Implementing the Citywide Housing Incentive Program (CHIP), the largest local rezoning program in modern history, that creates 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.

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

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

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

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

• Signing 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.

• Signing Executive Directives 25 and 26 to further accelerate permitting, expand housing development on public land, and simplify affordable housing applications for Angelenos.