In her first State of the City address, Mayor Karen Bass announced a dramatic expansion of her signature program to move the homeless indoors, while also calling for the city to be transformed into a new LA

Bass said she plans to propose $250 million for Inside Safe, which moves displaced residents from sidewalks to hotel and motel rooms, as part of a $1.3 billion investment in housing and homelessness programs, a amount she called “unprecedented,” according to a prepared copy of her speech, which began just after 6 p.m. Monday.

The mayor’s full spending plan, which covers the year beginning July 1 and still requires city council approval, will be unveiled Tuesday morning.

In the four months since she took office, Bass has sometimes seemed like a single-issue mayor, focusing almost exclusively on homelessness. Monday’s speech brought those efforts to the forefront while focusing attention on public safety and other issues.

Bass pledged to rebuild the depleted ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department while also investing in a new Mayors Office of Community Safety, which will focus on unarmed emergency response. The mayor’s speech featured a laundry list of other topics, including climate change, paramedic response times, pothole repairs, city staff job openings, and graffiti on highways and underpasses.

Depending on the details of her spending plan, the mayor’s proposed budget will likely exceed the dollar amount of the city’s previous efforts to address the city’s homelessness crisis. Two years ago, former mayor Eric Garcetti used his own State of the City address to announce that he planned to spend nearly $1 billion to deal with the crisis, which has grown steadily over the past decade.

In September, the region’s annual homeless count found that the number of homeless people in LA had risen to 41,980.

Speaking in the council chambers of City Hall in front of a packed room of civic and community leaders, Bass began by saying she couldn’t state that the state of the city “is where it needs to be,” according to a prepared copy of the speech. She presented a vision of a metropolis defined by neighborhood-level issues that her administration is still trying to improve.

The state of the city largely depends on the conditions of every neighborhood and household in LA, Bass said in her prepared remarks.

“Do you look over your shoulder after dark? Are you proud of your local park? Do you have peace of mind because you

Actually

pay the rent? If the answer is yes, then we can say that the state of our city is strong,” she said

according to the prepared comments

.

“After years of frustration, tonight we can see a clearer path to a new Los Angeles,” she said, describing an “increased urgency” at City Hall, in what sounded like a tacit critique from her predecessor, Garcetti.

Since taking office in December, Bass has emphasized the need to work closely with other government agencies to solve homelessness and other problems across the region, relying on the phrase “lock arms”. As part of that theme, Bass allowed City Council and County Board of Supervisors leaders to speak at the event, when the mayor is typically the only speaker.

Board Chair Paul Krekorian and Board Chair Janice Hahn’s introductions were indicative not only of Bass’ broader approach, but also of the reality of governance in Los Angeles, said Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs in Cal State LA.

Every mayor is the most recognized political leader, Sonenshein said. But on some issues it is very difficult to get things done without the city council, which elects the president of the council and, to some extent, the county supervisors when social services are involved, as would be the case with homelessness .

It’s a concept Bass, a former speaker of the Assembly and six-time congressman, is very familiar with, and one that echoed in nods to her city and county colleagues during her speech, according to the prepared remarks.

“We’ve finally dispelled the myth that people don’t want to go outside,” Bass said of her plans to scale up the Inside Safe pilot program, according to her prepared remarks.

Bass announced her plans to rebuild the Los Angeles Police Department, saying she feared the department’s ranks would fall below 9,000 officers, a low not seen since 2002, the mayor said. She promised an urgent new recruiting campaign aimed at hiring police officers, and said financial incentives would be given to city employees who help find recruits.

She also spoke about her plans for the new Mayor’s Office of Community Safety, saying it will “build capacity for community intervention workers, social workers, clinical psychologists and other experts to respond when law enforcement is not required.”

She acknowledged the ongoing problems in the city’s animal shelters by bluntly stating that the city’s animal care is not working properly, the prepared remarks said. She said her budget would include money for staff

the Animal Protection Animal Protection

department, and she praised the city’s invaluable shelter volunteers, saying the shelters just couldn’t function without them.

Bass also announced

a plan to hire

hundreds of Los Angeles city firefighters, according to her prepared remarks. She also plans to put qualified paramedics on duty immediately and complete their firefighter instruction later, a move intended to accommodate the vast majority of Los Angeles Fire Department calls for medical emergencies. is.

We now need more paramedics responding to 911 calls, Bass said, according to the prepared remarks.

The audience for Bass’s first annual city speech included their own family members, city officials, and community and business leaders. Before the event began, former mayor Antonio Villaraigosa advised Bass

shook

hands with some in the crowd.

As Bass gave her speech in the council chamber, protesters stood outside city hall with banners urging the city to help the tenants of Hillside Villa, a Chinatown apartment building where dozens of tenants have faced rent increases. City officials are investigating whether they can pre-purchase that building

two more

years.