Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass built her campaign around her plan to clear the streets of homelessness and provide safe housing across the city. Over a year ago, Bass was sworn in as mayor and immediately declared the homelessness crisis an emergency, and promised to house 17,000 people in her first year.

Her plan to do so? It’s called Inside Safe: partnerships with hotels and motels to provide temporary shelter while social services try to find permanent housing. 

According to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, about 22,000 people have entered temporary housing, but no thanks to Inside Safe.

Through September 2023, Inside Safe Plan spent a whopping $81 million dollars — only to move 1,951 people into motels and 256 into permanent housing. The majority of those in temporary housing have come from other local or federal housing projects already in place before Bass came into office, according to an LAist tracker.

“Not just disappointed,” Bass said at the end of July. “Very disappointed.”

Inside Safe has a pretty straightforward action plan: Outreach workers head to homeless encampments and ask if people want to receive temporary housing, with the chance of permanent housing. Then, the LADOT buses transport homeless people to one of many different Inside Safe sites; Bass has partnered with hotels, used city-owned property, and even bought other hotels to house the homeless. While the homeless receive showers, food, and bedding, social services work on processing through permanent housing vouchers.

Bass had announced five goals when Inside Safe launched: reduce the loss of life on our streets, increase access to mental health and substance abuse treatment for those living in encampments, eliminate street encampments, promote long-term housing stability for people experiencing homelessness, and enhance the safety and hygiene of neighborhoods for all residents, businesses, and neighbors.

But in trying to meet those five goals, Inside Safe has faced numerous difficulties — some of Bass’ fault, and some not.

After they’re taken off the streets, many homeless people are stuck in limbo. Federal rules require them to prove low-income status before receiving permanent housing. On top of that, as of December 2023, the city has only leased 2,800 housing vouchers. Even if they prove their low-income status, there’s only so many housing spots available. 

These hiccups come back to poor planning. While the strategy was solid, the infrastructure was nowhere near close to being able to execute it.

As a result, thousands of homeless people are being rushed into rooms, promised permanent housing, and just left waiting for months. And they’re not staying at Sheraton or Doubletree. 

More often than not, they’re placed in low-level hotels (The Vagabond Inn, 1,000 feet north of USC campus, is one of those locations, and no middle-class family would consider booking a stay there). There’s security checks, no-guest policies, and strict curfews. For some, they feel like it’s glorified house arrest.

After originally promising people housing after three to six months in a hotel room, Bass has admitted that a more feasible timeline is one to two years.

Due to these poor conditions, there’s been reports of just as many people leaving the program as those who receive permanent housing. But that’s actually not Bass’ or Inside Safes’ fault. Inside Safe’s 83% housing retention rate is in line with former Mayor Eric Garcetti’s 79% retention rate with his Bridges Home initiative. 

Critics have also criticized how the term “permanent housing” isn’t fully true; it’s actually just a subsidy for two years of an apartment. So maybe some homeless people finish those two years with a transformed life, improved mental health, and job prospects… Or maybe nothing changes and they go straight back to the streets.