Good-for-nothing nigger Democrat goes apeshit with emergency powers

In article <[email protected]>
"Queer - Inmate Number P01135809" <[email protected]> 
wrote:

Mayor Karen Bass’ first day in office didn’t start at City Hall 
but down the street at the Emergency Operations Center where, 
flanked by elected officials, she declared the homeless crisis a 
state of emergency.

That move, which will require City Council approval, gives her 
the ability to more quickly create new interim housing and make 
a plan to get the most vulnerable Angelenos off the streets as 
winter weather sets in. Bass met with the general managers of 
city departments, telling them to bring her solutions to make 
the government more efficient and responsive when addressing 
homelessness.

“We must bring people indoors faster, and we will,” she said. 
“We must build housing faster, and we will. We must coordinate 
shelter and services, and we will. We must have coordination 
among the city officials and the city departments and we will, 
because we are doing things differently.”

The question is how Bass plans to use the powers afforded to her 
during an emergency. She has the ability to more quickly 
dispense money to providers who do the outreach work to homeless 
people, approve the master-leasing of buildings and expedite the 
regulatory and permitting processes.

Though she could also commandeer property to provide housing, 
she told The Times’ editorial board she won’t do that because 
“you’re going to end up tied up in court forever. I’m looking 
for the quickest way to do this.”

It’s unclear how much this emergency declaration would cost, if 
passed, or how many units of interim housing Bass plans to 
create immediately. The latest count found that about 41,000 
people are homeless in the city of Los Angeles, with about 
28,000 of them unsheltered.

Karen Bass will make history as L.A. mayor. Then the hard work 
begins
Karen Bass has said she will declare a state of emergency on 
homelessness in Los Angeles. ‘I realize that I’m taking a huge 
risk,’ she says.

Dec. 11, 2022

During the campaign, Bass said she will would bring about 17,000 
people indoors in her first year. This week the newly installed 
mayor said more details would be provided in the coming days 
about the effort, called “Inside Safe.”

Bass estimated this first push to bring people indoors from 
encampments would cost “under $100 million” but didn’t 
elaborate. The state of emergency will “sunset in six months 
subject to being renewed. The setting of a specific time frame 
allows for actions to be taken to make permanent, necessary 
structural changes,” the declaration said.

She was flanked by county Board of Supervisors Chair Janice Hahn 
and City Council President Paul Krekorian.

“This is a crisis that demands all our attention, our 
cooperation and our resources,” Hahn said.

The emergency declaration requires City Council authorization 
every 30 days and is expected to come before the council on 
Tuesday. This consolidation of power will come at the expense of 
the council, but Krekorian said he was excited to work with 
Bass, with whom he served in the Legislature.

“One thing that a state of emergency in the city provides is 
different procurement processes, for example. So it’d be much 
easier for us to acquire housing or to acquire the pieces that 
are needed and so forth,” Krekorian said Monday. “All of these 
things will be subjected to council oversight, and there will be 
a limited duration to it.”

Under Mayor Eric Garcetti, the city at one point declared a 
“shelter crisis” but stopped short of declaring a state of 
emergency on homelessness. Still, Garcetti’s moves helped speed 
up the process of siting and building shelters throughout the 
city.

This move by Bass goes much further.

The declaration would give her additional power to spend money 
on facilities and services without going through a competitive 
bidding process. Those expenditures would also not require 
council approval.

Sarah Dusseault, who has worked on homelessness policy in the 
city and county and helped Bass develop her strategy, explained 
that only the mayor has the power to activate the emergency 
operations center and also strip away some of the regulations 
and approval processes that tend to slow down projects.

“An emergency declaration, per the charter, comes with enormous 
local authority that does not exist short of a declaration,” she 
said. “There’s this hunger among the City Council and city 
departments around getting clear direction from the mayor, on 
the most significant issue facing our city. ... There is no 
question that in a vacuum, everybody just operated to do the 
best that they could. Today, in one fell swoop, she eliminated 
the vacuum.”

The Times reported Sunday that Bass will aggressively target 
large encampments with residents who are desperately in need of 
help and have been a constant source of frustration for nearby 
residents. Her advisors have been asking city agencies, 
nonprofits and council offices for the locations where these 
large encampments have sprung up.

“Every council member has their own plan,” said Miguel Santana, 
chief executive of the Weingart Foundation, who also has helped 
with the mayoral transition. “The tension that’s going to 
surface is the transition from a culture where it’s each person 
for themselves, and everyone running their own program, to a 
system that is centralized and coordinated.”

They have been examining where these people could go at least on 
a temporary basis — contemplating more hotel conversions, master-
leasing of buildings and extending the homeless-housing 
operation of the nearly 500-room L.A. Grand Hotel downtown.

Bass declined to set a goal of how many beds she wanted rented 
for homeless people. She did say the work would be modeled on 
the “encampment to home” approach that was refined throughout 
2021 across the city in areas such as Echo Park, MacArthur Park 
and the Venice Boardwalk.

That work required having a supply of interim housing — usually 
in the form of master-leased hotels — where people could go 
quickly while they figured out a more permanent housing 
solution. Standing beside Bass on Monday were some of the 
largest homeless services nonprofit providers who had briefed 
her on their work and needs.

“We have the trust and the engagement already built with many of 
the people who are still living outdoors,” said Stephanie Klasky-
Gamer of LA Family Housing, who serves on Bass’ transition team 
as well. “What we haven’t had on hand are the beds.”

Jennifer Hark Dietz, chief executive of People Assisting the 
Homeless, said it sent an important message that Bass asked 
organizations like hers to be there Monday, because they are 
doing the work on a day-to-day basis. She said Bass appeared 
very much to understand that offering people services and 
housing would be much more successful than a strategy the relies 
on punishing people for where they bed down at night.

“The city’s approach to homelessness has become more piecemeal 
and politicized, and this state of emergency can leverage the 
power of the executive branch to make sustainable improvements 
to our service system and dramatically increase the production 
of desperately needed housing,” she said.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-12-12/emergency-
declaration-gives-karen-bass-new-powers