100 unhoused people moved into shelter following K-Town encampment clearing

More than 100 people were taken off the streets of Koreatown and brought into housing during an Inside Safe operation.

The encampment sweep was held Thursday throughout Koreatown and surrounding areas, including near Virgil Middle School, according to a news release from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

Four different “clusters of encampments” were the focus of the operation. Bass said more than 100 unhoused Angelenos are now safely inside.

The Inside Safe program is a landmark initiative of Bass’s administration. The program aims to bring the homeless into shelter, clear encampments and prevent future encampments from sprouting up.

The housing initiative is voluntary, Bass’s office says, and also includes resources and services for those who get off the streets and into the temporary housing.

“The number one priority of my administration is bringing Angelenos inside, and this week, in partnership with the City and County, we were able to bring more than 100 Angelenos inside and restore communities,” Bass said in a news release. “We will continue to do everything we can to confront this crisis with the urgency it deserves.”

Bass thanked city and county partners for lending a hand providing cleanup services and resources for those who were previously on the street.

A lynchpin of her policy as mayor, this is the 28th Inside Safe operation to take place since Bass was elected. The program is credited with bringing more than 1,600 homeless individuals into housing, Bass said.

In the early days of Bass’s administration, the mayor declared the homelessness crisis an emergency. Since then, the city says it’s taken dramatic action to get more people into affordable housing, including accelerating and lowering the cost of building new developments and using city-owned property for temporary or permanent housing.

Despite its successes, some critics of the program argue that not enough resources are made available to those relocated residents and that the hotels where the residents are being moved are often far from their jobs or previous community.

Bass has previously said the city has done its best to find housing near where the residents were living, but stressed that it can be challenging and often getting someone off the street is simply a higher priority.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell said Thursday’s operation is just one piece of the ongoing efforts to address the homelessness crisis in the greater Los Angeles area and added that collaboration is key to achieving any progress.

“Our work is far from done,” Mitchell said.