Inside Safe and the homelessness numbers

Inside Safe clears encampments and moves people into leased hotels and motels on the way to permanent housing. By December 2025 the city had spent more than $300 million and moved about 5,800 people indoors; about one in four had reached permanent housing, the Los Angeles Times found. [1] [2]

The share returning to the street rose every year, to about 40% — 2,300 of 5,800 — by December 2025. Average stays were 362 days against a six-month limit. City figures cited by the New York Post put spending at about $391 million for 5,932 people, 1,571 permanently housed. NBC Los Angeles calculated about $263,000 per permanent placement in year one. [1] [3] [4]

Bass credits the program with a 17.5% drop in unsheltered homelessness over two counts and with saving lives. Critics, including UCLA’s Gary Blasi, say the motel model costs too much for what it delivers. [1]

Alvarez & Marsal, hired under Judge David O. Carter’s supervision of the LA Alliance settlement, reported in 2025 that the city’s homelessness programs, Inside Safe included, lacked reliable data and financial controls and could not show what the money bought. It said the system was vulnerable to fraud; it did not find fraud. [1] [2]

In June 2025 Carter refused to appoint a receiver but found the city had breached the settlement. In November he ordered it to show cause why it should not be held in contempt. In May 2026, before any ruling, the city agreed to raise its housing and shelter commitments. [3] [4] [5]

Controller Kenneth Mejia announced an Inside Safe audit in 2024. It still had not appeared in October 2025; Bass’s spokesperson said “a city elected official should not conduct a performance audit of another elected official.” An earlier controller analysis found only 58% of Inside Safe’s 2023–24 money spent or committed. [6] [7]

LAHSA’s 2026 count estimated 45,194 homeless people in the city, up 3.4%, with unsheltered homelessness up 7.9% to 29,115. LAHSA called neither change statistically significant and blamed a pause in rent subsidies. The two prior counts had fallen. [1]

In the October 13 debate Bass said homelessness had fallen 11%. NBC Los Angeles found the citywide count was down 2.3% from 2023 to 2026 and said her figure needed clarification. [2] A Council District 8 tract was overcounted — 277 adults in the official figure, 18 on recount — but LAHSA says the error was local. [3]