A day after Mayor Karen Bass gave her first State of the City Address she is expected to unveil her spending plan for the city of the LA.
In her address speech Bass said that the bulk of her budget will be focused on on three things. The first, will be to continue efforts in help the city’s homelessness crisis, public safety and helping the overall city get to the “new LA.”
The mayor is expected to present her city budget during a news conference in City Hall at 11 a.m. The budget is a roadmap for the city to achieve goals outlined by the mayor and City Council.
“Building on the success of Inside Safe, my budget includes a $250 million investment to scale Inside Safe citywide,” Bass said during Monday’s State of the City Address.
The proposed budget will also include a $1.3 billion investment to accelerate the city’s momentum on homelessness, she added. Her plan is to evaluate more 3,000 city owned properties for housing use, which would then get thousands of individuals into stable housing.
She also hinted at expanding the city’s mental health crisis teams and funding new Mayor’s Office of Community Safety, aimed at building a force of community intervention workers, social workers, clinical psychologists and other experts to respond when law enforcement is not required.
One of the mayor’s most controversial topics on her budget is her proposal to hire more LAPD officers in the next year.
“My budget proposal calls for urgent action to hire hundreds of officers next year, on the way to restoring the department to full strength,” Bass said.
As the LAPD has seen a decrease in employment rates Bass says it’s her job to keep Angelenos safe. But many say that there are alternatives to keeping people safe than hiring more officers.
“Shift away from law enforcement led interventions to community-based and mental health led interventions,” said Ivette Alé-Ferlito, the co-founder of La Defensa.
City News Service contributed to this reporting.
Source: NBC Los Angeles
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