Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass delivered her State of the City address from City Hall on Monday evening. The Mayor touched on a wide range of issues, including climate change, the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics, homelessness, improvements to L.A. Metro, and the launch of a new climate cabinet.

The homeless crisis and public safety are arguably the biggest challenges facing Los Angeles residents.

Bass said her number one job is to keep Angelenos safe, and a key to public safety and public health is how the city approaches getting 46,000 unhoused Angelenos off the streets.

“This means committing to the goal of preventing and ending homelessness — not hiding —  not managing — but ending homelessness — with a new strategy and a new system that urgently lifts people from the street, and that surrounds them with the support and housing they need to never go back,” said Bass.

On day one of Bass’ administration, she declared a State of Emergency and initiated Inside Safe, which placed homeless people temporarily into hotels to get them permanent housing and services to stay off the streets, with resources for substance abuse and mental health counseling.

“Inside Safe is our proactive rejection of a status quo that left unhoused Angelenos to wait – and die – outside, in encampments until permanent housing was built,” said Bass.

The declaration unlocked state and federal resources, which allowed work to be done quickly, like taking whole encampments off the streets, placing those communities in rented hotels immediately, and working to get the unhoused from temporary housing into long-term solutions.

Bass also asked the private sector to do more to help fund the building of affordable housing for thousands of unhoused residents and introduced a new campaign called LA4LA.

“LA4LA can be a Sea Change for Los Angeles – an unprecedented partnership to confront this emergency… an example of disrupting the status quo to build a new system to save lives,” said Bass.

Bass added that getting residents off the streets into interim housing was a critical step in her strategy to cut the process of building more affordable housing from six months to 35 days, which she says resulted in more than 16,000 additional, new affordable housing units in the pipeline.

Climate Change

Bass also announced the creation of a new climate cabinet that would create new plans to address climate change at key city departments including making Los Angeles a 100 percent clean energy city by 2035.

“We are seeing a greener and cleaner America’s Port – the Port of Los Angeles –  where just last month I was joined by the EPA Administrator to announce new federal investments in zero-emissions equipment and infrastructure and other initiatives to address climate change and public health,” said Bass.

New Police Chief

Bass also spoke about the search for the next LAPD Chief, after Chief Michael Moore retired at the end of February. Chief Dominic Choi is serving as interim head of the department. Bass said she’s been meeting with officers, business organizations, community leaders, and community members to ask them directly what they want to see in the next chief.

2026 World Cup and 2028 Summer Olympics

Bass also said the city would be ready to host the 2028 Summer Olympics and that the games will provide an economic boom for L.A.

“We all know that the Games are a massive endeavor with transportation, security, business, housing, sustainability, and so much more,” said Bass. “But we must zoom out and realize that the Olympics are about opportunity.” She added, “More than 5 million visitors pumping billions of dollars into our economy – staying in our hotels, eating in our restaurants, visiting our museums, and exploring our neighborhoods. And my administration will create a focused initiative to make sure the Games will mean hundreds of small businesses winning contracts and hiring Angelenos.”

Improvements to the L.A. Metro

Despite the growing concerns about safety issues on the L.A. Metro, Bass says the city is moving in the right direction.

“We want the world to see that Los Angeles is now the number two transit city in the country – because riders are seeing that we are changing Metro’s approach to safety, cleanliness, and customer service,” said Bass.

Safety has been a concern for riders after numerous violent incidents that occurred on Metro vehicles, with Bass saying the city has invested billions of dollars in transit improvements.

“This past year Metro accomplished what commuters have dreamed of for years – a regional connector in the heart of our city that links every corner of our region, and bursting with promise of what’s possible as we expand public transportation in L.A.” Bass said.

Photo is the Mayor’s Official City Headshot