LA Mayor Karen Bass' 'Inside Safe' program clears 6 homeless encampments

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is stepping up the city's efforts to house the homeless under the "Inside Safe" program.

"It's a very exciting time because people are very thankful to be leaving the streets," Bass said.

In less than two months, the program has moved 247 unhoused people into temporary shelters at motels and last week, 40 of those people who were at motels were placed into permanent housing.

The city has more than 41,000 homeless people and there's a long way to go. Bass acknowledged some of the challenges on Tuesday, including complaints about the conditions at one of the motels.

"We did have a problem recently with one of the motels. It is challenging. We've been fortunate in the sense that we've been able to find motels, but we need so many more rooms than that," Bass said. "The other thing that's challenging is that not in every council district are there motels. We don't want to ship people from one end of the community to the next. We want to keep them nearby where they were."

A homeless encampment at 87th Street and Western Avenue in South Los Angeles once occupied the entire block. With Bass' program, it has not returned and part of the sidewalk is still fenced off.

Six homeless encampments have been cleared so far in L.A. Of the six, the locations included Cahuenga Boulevard and the 101 Freeway in Hollywood, two in Venice, one in Mar Vista, and another in South Los Angeles at 99th and Flower Street, which was cleared Tuesday - all 30 people living at the encampment accepted housing.

"I believe right down to my core that we can solve homelessness right here in Los Angeles and if we can solve it here, we can solve it anywhere," said Jeff Olivet, the Director of the US Interagency Council on Homelessness.

Bass said the key to being successful at this mission is by aligning all forms of government. Olivet toured Skid Row, a temporary shelter, and a substance abuse treatment center while in L.A. on Tuesday.

"We have to address the crisis of unsheltered homelessness. Inside Safe is a great example of how to do that, but we've got to also attend to the permanent housing and supportive services that help end homelessness. If we only do those two things and we don't prevent homelessness from happening in the first place, we would have failed," Olivet said.