{"id":70877,"date":"2025-02-18T17:35:44","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T01:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=70877"},"modified":"2025-02-18T17:35:44","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T01:35:44","slug":"greater-la-coalition-on-homelessness-honors-mayor-karen-bass-as-2025-champion-for-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=70877","title":{"rendered":"Greater LA Coalition on Homelessness Honors Mayor Karen Bass as 2025 Champion for Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dozens of homeless response system providers gather to acknowledge the Mayor\u2019s commitment to bring unsheltered people inside<\/strong><\/p>\n

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From\u00a0left to right\u00a0 Karen Earl, Mayor Karen Bass, Celina Alvarez, and Heather Carmichael.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES, CA (Feb. 18, 2025)<\/strong>\u2014 At a City Hall meeting today attended by dozens of homeless response system providers, the Greater LA Coalition on Homelessness recognized Mayor Karen Bass as the recipient of their 2025 \u201cChampion\u201d Award for her commitment to homelessness solutions. Mayor Bass has made homelessness a top priority, focusing on addressing unsheltered homelessness\u2013and has demonstrated breakthrough results.<\/p>\n

Because of Mayor Bass\u2019s leadership, the City of LA was one of the few places in the country that reported a decrease in homelessness last year. While homelessness continued to rise nationwide, the\u00a0city of LA reduced unsheltered homelessness by 10%<\/a>. By expanding interim housing in Los Angeles, our homelessness response system brought more people inside than ever before, resulting in a\u00a017% increase of people living in shelter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I am humbled by this honor from the Greater Los Angeles Coalition on Homelessness, and I, in turn, commend them. The Coalition was essential to our work to bring down homelessness in LA for the first time in years, including a 10 percent reduction in street homelessness,” said\u00a0Mayor Karen Bass. “Together, we are answering the absolutely necessary call from Angelenos to bring people inside and save lives.”<\/p>\n

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Additionally, the Mayor\u2019s efforts to increase the city\u2019s affordable housing stock will have a long-lasting impact on the future of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMayor Bass has championed reforms that have helped house thousands of Angelenos, including domestic violence survivors, former foster care youth, veterans, and those dealing with chronic health conditions,\u201d said\u00a0Karen Earl, CEO of Jenesse Center, a domestic violence intervention and prevention organization founded in 1980. \u201cWe\u2019re grateful to have a Mayor who understands the many pathways to becoming homeless and the importance of building a homeless response system that reflects that diversity of needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen a young person experiences homelessness, it has the potential to turn into a lifetime of strife, which is why it is critical to devote resources to preventing and ending youth homelessness,\u201d said\u00a0Heather Carmichael, Executive Director of My Friend\u2019s Place,\u00a0which serves homeless youth.\u00a0\u201cMany of the young people we serve experience housing insecurity and homelessness after exiting the foster care system. Having an advocate with a background in social work like Mayor Bass has brought a more holistic understanding to our city\u2019s approach to youth homelessness. There is now a greater focus on prevention and mental health support that has significantly improved the lives of young people we serve. And that is an investment in our future.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cMayor Bass came in the door with a deep commitment and drive to invest in LA’s unhoused community members. We appreciate her steadfast time and attention focused on bringing individuals and families off the streets and into housing. LA’s homeless response system commits to continuing to work collectively with Mayor Bass to welcome folks home,\u201d said\u00a0Celina Alvarez, Executive Director of Housing Works.<\/p>\n

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Providers of homeless services have only bestowed their \u201cChampion\u201d award to two other public officials in the past decade \u2013 Assemblymember Miguel Santiago and then-State Senator Holly Mitchell in 2019 for creating the Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention program, which remains the State of California\u2019s primary framework for homeless assistance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dozens of homeless response system providers...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70877"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70878,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70877\/revisions\/70878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}