UCLA - University of California - Los Angeles
04/26/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 04/26/2024 18:08
Mayor Karen Bass focuses on need for housing solutions at UCLA Luskin Summit
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass joined scholars, civic leaders and the philanthropic community last week at the sixth annual UCLA Luskin Summit to discuss housing and other policy issues.
Bass, the featured speaker, declared homelessness a state of emergency on her first day as mayor in December 2022. She told the hundreds of people in attendance at the April 17 event at the UCLA Luskin Conference Center that her office is now turning more attention to longer-term solutions, after initially emphasizing urgency in getting unhoused people off the streets.
"It is not reasonable for somebody [needing shelter] to be able to stay around while we get housing built," she said of the challenge to provide shelter for people in need amid an ongoing affordable housing crisis.
The former congresswoman chairs the Homeless Task Force for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which gives elected officials the opportunity to learn from each other and share what's being done in their cities. Just two days before the Luskin summit, Bass had announced a new housing initiative based on a program in Atlanta.
"I feel good in terms of what we can do and how we should move forward," she said during a discussion with Jacqueline Waggoner, a double Bruin and current chair of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affair's board of advisors. "The biggest question is scale."
Waggoner, a native Angeleno with a longtime connection to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, said she was heartened by the mayor's intense focus on homelessness given the magnitude of the problem in Los Angeles. Since Bass took office, Waggoner said she has noticed visible change in the unhoused population. In the past, she would see people leave the streets, only to return soon after.
"I haven't seen those same people in a year, and what I would say to you is that you are on the path to permanent solutions," Waggoner told Bass.
Other speakers at the event included former Los Angeles public official Zev Yaroslavsky, now an adjunct faculty member at the Luskin School, who directs the Los Angeles Initiative and the annual Quality of Life Index. In other panel sessions, summit attendees heard about studies and policy proposals in climate resilience, governance and equity in transportation.
Read the full story about the summit on the Luskin School's website.