Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass reported Tuesday that more than 14,000 homeless people were removed from the streets in the first six months of her administration.

4,332 people, about 30%, acquired permanent housing.

Bass said an additional 1,049 people moved into temporary housing through city and county programs between December and May, up 27% from the same period last year.

Of those living in permanent housing, about one-third have moved to new housing and the rest have used subsidies to acquire rental housing.

Bass said housing arrangements were enacted when he took office, including declaring a state of emergency for the homeless and launching the Inside Safe program, which aims to move homeless people indoors and clear street camps. said it was the result of an executive order that

“We believe the emergency is clearly continuing, but we see a way forward,” Bass told a news conference at City Hall.

Homelessness has been a top priority for Bass since she took office in mid-December with a promise to accommodate 17,000 people in her first year.

In April, she announced that $1.3 billion of the proposed $13 billion budget would go to combat homelessness, including about $250 million for Inside Safe. Previously, the program rented rooms around the city. bus team has switched its strategy to buying real estate and is considering acquiring at least eight motels or hotels.

Bass said Tuesday that in the first six months, Inside Safe had demolished 19 camps and 1,323 people had voluntarily moved into hotels and other temporary housing. It slowed down from the first 100 days.

Materials handed out at the City Hall briefing included before and after photos of streets in Hollywood, Venice, Harbor City and South Los Angeles. Over 262,000 pounds of waste are said to have been removed.

Handouts included topics such as the cost of motel rooms, the difficulty of evacuating RV camps, the shortage of health care workers and access to drug treatment, and the already shortfall of homeless service providers limiting their ability to serve. Some of the challenges of Inside Safe were detailed. stretched thin.

“Community-based organizations have done more than they were asked to do,” Bass said. “When a person leaves the tent and enters the hotel, on the first day, they must undergo services such as a physical examination and a meeting with a social worker, if acceptable.”

A homeless man who refuses to identify himself takes snacks and toiletries back to his tent on First Street near Los Angeles City Hall.

(Luis Cinco/Los Angeles Times)

As a remedy, Bass said he has hired a community health director to work with a local university that can provide nurses, doctors and dentists.

Other solutions to keep more people off the streets are outlined in the document, though not detailed. More persistent advocacy to overcome some homeless people’s reluctance to move indoors; longer-term rentals and more permanent housing to avoid spending money on motel rooms. .

Bass said her executive order to cut back on bureaucratic paperwork has streamlined the handling of more than 8,000 new homes in 456 projects in the development pipeline.

He said approval now takes 37 days instead of six months.

The figures released Tuesday also include an update to a report Ms Bass released after the first 100 days, when the number of people she initially said had stayed indoors had more than doubled. . She reported just under 4,000 in March, but that figure has been revised to 8,726.

Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Chief Executive Vah Resia Adams Kellum said previous undercounts were due to time lags and the need to validate data entered.

“We didn’t have a full account of the people we helped,” Kellum said. “The data has been reviewed and revised, and we can now see exactly how many people moved from the tent to the hotel.”

Times staff writer Rachel Wranga contributed to this report.