Chair Janice Hahn Releases Statement on Mayor Bass Emergency Declaration

LOS ANGELES — Chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Janice Hahn Dec. 12 joined Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in the city’s emergency operations center as the mayor signed an emergency declaration for the homeless crisis.  

In remarks to the press, Hahn made clear that she intends to be the mayor’s partner in this effort and announced an upcoming motion to bring county resources to match the city’s work:

“Mayor Karen Bass is doing exactly what she promised the voters and what the situation demands: treating the homelessness crisis with the urgency it demands.

People’s lives are on the line, and I appreciate that Mayor Bass did not waste a moment to get to work.

The emergency declaration is important – as are the policies Mayor Bass will implement in the coming days and months that double down on the strategies we know work: like master leasing and moving entire encampment communities inside at a time.

The homelessness crisis is not the City of Los Angeles’s problem, or the County’s problem, or the State’s problem to solve alone. 

This is a crisis that demands all our attention, our cooperation, and our resources. As Mayor Bass said in her address yesterday — we need to link arms rather than point fingers.

As the Chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, I stand ready to be a partner with the new Mayor in this effort.

In the coming weeks, I will be putting forward a motion to ensure that County resources, especially mental health and health care, can be brought to bear and match the urgency of this emergency declaration.

Mayor Bass, thank you for inviting me to join you and for bringing this renewed vigor to a battle we have been fighting for far too long. Let’s get to work.”