Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issues homeless emergency declaration on first day in office to deal with 40,000 unsheltered people.
By Eileen Griffin
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) declared the “existence of a local emergency” with respect to the rising homeless population in the city.
Bass’s first action as mayor was to issue the order. Bass told KTLA News an emergency declaration is necessary to attack the growing homeless problem.
“The Emergency Operations Center and effective strategy against homelessness cannot be run like just any other city function,” Bass told the New York Post. “We will increase the scale and speed of the city’s approach to homelessness by removing it from the traditional city hall way of doing things.”
Temporary Solutions, Long-Term Plans
Bass was elected mayor in the November 8 election. During her campaign, Bass made commitments to provide first temporary housing, and then long-term housing solutions for the homeless.
“Karen Bass will bring leadership, accountability and action to dramatically reduce homelessness and end street encampments in Los Angeles,” states the Karen Bass for Mayor website.
There are typically 40,000 people on the street at night in Los Angeles and Bass’s stated goal is to provide housing for 15,000 people in her first year on the job.
The city website dedicated to the mayor’s office, shows the prominence Bass is giving homelessness and related issues, including crime and open fires. The first line on the mayor’s homepage references the homeless issue and her plan to combat it.
“It is an honor to serve as your Mayor and lead Los Angeles in a new direction, with an urgent strategy to house people immediately and increase safety and opportunity in every neighborhood,” states the website.
Some city-owned buildings will now be available to house homeless individuals under the emergency order. Motels and empty apartments will also be identified and targeted to house the homeless.
Motels and other temporary solutions will not be enough to reduce homelessness, states the mayor’s website.
“But when someone accepts an offer to live temporarily in a motel, they should be right in line for a permanent home of their own,” Bass said. “That’s how the system is supposed to work.”
Executive Overreach
Emergency declarations allow an executive official to exercise more authority and waive regulations that impede implementation of policy goals. Rather than working through the state legislature or city council, one individual has unilateral authority to create policy during a declared emergency.
Samantha Fillmore, state government relations manager for The Heartland Institute, has testified in front of state legislatures about the overreaching authority governors claimed under the guise of emergency powers at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some governors refused to release the power long after the emergency was over.
“As has been seen all over the country from New Hampshire to Ohio to New Mexico to California,” Fillmore said. “The frustration with governors run amok is a purple problem and not exclusive to solely blue states or solely red states.”
Several state legislatures were forced to take action to release their state from emergency powers asserted by governors.
State Legislators Push Back
Testifying in Arizona on behalf of The Heartland Institute, Fillmore described the importance of maintaining checks and balances in government.
“There is a clear appetite among the lawmakers in Arizona to restrain any governor’s emergency powers while ensuring safeguards to prevent future gubernatorial tyranny under the guise of emergency declarations,” Fillmore said. “Co-equal governance checks and balances, and the decentralization of power are bedrock American principles. Yet, these fundamental principles have been AWOL in Arizona since the pandemic. Fortunately for the cause of freedom, Arizona lawmakers are standing up to gubernatorial overreach by reasserting their rightful place as a much-needed check against the executive branch.”
Bass says the emergency declaration was necessary to give her expanded powers.
“My emergency declaration unlocks tools and powers to make sure we are using every resource possible at the scale that is needed to save lives and restore our neighborhoods,” Bass said. “There will be no holding back on my watch.”
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