Karen Bass

They bought buildings.

They got people off the street right away.

So where we have 40 plus thousand people

uh who are unhoused in los angeles new york has 80 but 97 of them are not on the street they're in some form of interim housing or shell or shelter we chose not to do that and i understand why it was well-intentioned ideology

which is a rigid interpretation of housing first.

Now, I'm a big proponent of housing first, but to me, housing first does not necessarily mean permanent housing or something that you build.

I think that we should have built a system of interim housing

where someone could stay for a year, year and a half, or two years while something was being built.

The other mistake, fundamental mistake, was not focusing or even understanding the type of support systems, services that people needed to be successful.

So what you have in this part continues today is people being housed but being churned in and out, in and out, in and out because they are today still not provided the adequate support that is needed.

Well, let me just let me just tell you that is partially true.

Let me explain why.

And actually, I believe the number is higher.

OK, so when we were the way the city does this is and, you know, the city does not provide services.

The county does that.

So we get people off the street.

We have contracts with probably over 15 community-based organizations.

They are responsible for the people once they're off the street.

None of those organizations have the capacity to provide the type of services that are needed.

The real truth of the matter is, is that a percentage of those people wind up back on the street, but we don't exactly know where they are.