Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass does not agree that aggressive tactics are necessary to deal with the homelessness crisis in her city, but she says she thinks she and President-elect Donald Trump can find common ground on the issue.
"I'm certainly going to begin that way," Bass told the Los Angeles Times. "Over the years that I spent in Congress — 12 years that I spent in Congress — I have very significant Republican relationships."
In a video last year, Trump said "every tool, lever, and authority" would be used to get the nation's homeless off the streets.
He has also, though, said he would arrest homeless people who do not abide by a law banning "urban camping" and move them to tent cities on "inexpensive land" that would have doctors and social workers present to help people address their problems, NBC News reported last April.
Los Angeles has neither remote or cheap land nearby, but Bass said she is on the "same page" with a proposal the Trump administration made during his first term in office to use federal property for temporary shelters.
She also suggested the city could repurpose shipping containers or other modular units to allow more stable housing than tent cities would provide.
Bass is trying to navigate a shifting political terrain around homelessness, as public sentiment and a recent Supreme Court decision have opened the door for cities and states to take more punitive actions against a homeless population that has swelled in recent years amid rising housing costs.
"The ground is fertile," said Jesse Rabinowitz, campaign and communications director for the National Homelessness Law Center, which fights laws aimed at criminalizing homelessness.
Trump has not chosen a housing secretary yet, and his transition spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, did not give a specific answer about his plans, beyond that he would implement promises he had made on the campaign trail such as "lowering housing costs for all Americans."
Homeless advocates reviewing Trump's public statements though, identified changes including more aggressive policing, a return to forcing people with substance and mental health problems into institutions, and allowing mess funding for some low-income shelters and housing programs.
"Everybody's just trying to assess what we should do next," said Sharon Rapport, director of California state policy for the Corporation for Supportive Housing, an advocacy group that also works with homeless nonprofits.
An estimated 650,000 people were estimated as being homeless on a single night in 2023, the most recent data available shows. Out of those, California has the largest homeless population, estimated at 180,000.
However, those counts are believed to underestimate how many people are homeless. And even though many homeless people have struggled with mental illness and drug addiction, the biggest problem is the lack of affordable housing, according to research.
Meanwhile, open drug use and street camping are prompting cities to crack down on the homeless, and even liberal Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered aggressive means to clear out homeless encampments.
Meanwhile, Devon Kurtz, public safety director for the conservative Cicero Institute commented that designated camping sites would help reach more people who resist using shelters and would bring teams of doctors and social workers to a more centralized location.
Homeless advocates, though, are concerned Trump could cut programs, including housing vouchers that give California about $5.6 billion to get people into homes.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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