Rick Caruso unveils 'small business bill of rights' as LA mayor's race approaches final weeks

SHERMAN OAKS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso on Tuesday unveiled his plan to help small businesses, which he says haven't just been hurt by the pandemic but also by crime and homelessness.

Caruso said he started as a small business owner and has small businesses at his properties, which he helps grow.

"We didn't have the crime problem we had today," Caruso said at a campaign event in Sherman Oaks. "We didn't have the homeless problem we had today. And we weren't over regulated like we are today. I have many small businesses on our properties that we have to help just to get home. You almost literally need to hire a lobbyist in order to help navigate through the regulation in the city of L.A. To open a business, sometimes you need 10 different levels of approvals from 10 different commissions or departments."

Caruso was joined by business owners who complained about having to hire security to protect their staff and patrons rather than putting that money back into the business. On homelessness, Caruso said sheltering 30,000 people in his first year as mayor would make it easier for them to obtain services leading to a permanent home.

"It's all about getting people in shelter, in a bed, building trust and confidence, dealing with them with dignity and humanity and then offer the services they need," Caruso said. "Psychiatric care. Care in terms of drug addiction. I look at it: treat that person who's homeless as if it were one of your own."

But, in an interview with ABC7 on Monday, Caruso's opponent, Rep. Karen Bass, said the developer's plan doesn't do enough to end homelessness once and for all.

"His plan reflects more of the same," Bass said. "He wants to put 30,000 people in shelters. And I'm still trying to figure out what a 'sleep pod' is. I don't know what that is. But what I do know is people are on the streets today because they don't feel shelters are safe. So, it will be interesting to see what his plan is for that. My plan calls for getting people off the streets into housing. But you have to address why they were unhoused to begin with or they'll fall right back into homelessness."