macoskar Mayor Karen Bass said the Inside Safe program has been effective in clearing homeless camps and moving residents inside. He supports reducing costs by doubling the number of people in rooms and cutting low-use contracts.
“Spending this much is not sustainable and I think everyone recognizes that,” he said.
McOscar said he supports “no encampment” zones, per Municipal Code 41.18, around places like schools, day care centers, libraries and homeless shelters.
It’s especially important to keep camps away from shelters, he said, so people can get help without distractions.
“We really need to make that break and give people a chance to get their lives together,” he said.
rivers The no-encampment zones were compared to federal immigration operations in the city, arguing that they enable law enforcement to remove people from the street without giving them a place to go.
“Just becoming homeless doesn’t suddenly solve it,” he said.
Instead, Rivers wants to establish “safe haven” areas where people can get their needs met rather than being driven away.
Rivers believes Inside Safe contractors should be audited and there should be “full transparency” into the amount of money spent to house each individual.
“We really need to have a track record of where these funds are going,” he said, “so it’s clear that the money is actually helping solve homelessness.”
