Homeless Encampments Near LA City Hall Moved Ahead Of Mayoral Inauguration For Karen Bass

By Hikaru Y On Dec 10, 2022

LA mayor-elect Karen Bass will be inaugurated on Sunday.

Bass will be sworn in as the 43rd mayor of Los Angeles, becoming the first woman and woman of color to serve as mayor of Los Angeles. Vice President Kamala Harris will administer the oath of office.

The area has been cleaned up, but there are still a few encampments on the lawn, across the street and on the sidewalk.

Karen Bass said homelessness is her top priority, and would declare a state of emergency on day one.

Bass’ term as mayor officially begins on Dec. 12.

During her campaign, Los Angeles Mayor-elect Karen Bass repeatedly promised she would make homelessness her priority on Day 1, with an immediate focus on the city’s most “challenging” encampments.

Three days before her inauguration, one particularly visible encampment — across the street from City Hall — was already receiving a swarm of attention from sanitation crews, outreach workers and other government employees.

Unhoused residents who have been living at 1st and Spring streets, some for several months, were loaded into vans Thursday and whisked to the L.A. Grand Hotel, a temporary homeless facility on Figueroa Street that is scheduled to shut down Jan. 31.

Several said they were told that they needed to relocate in the run-up to Bass’ swearing-in, which had been scheduled for Sunday outside City Hall.

“They said that they were going to be coming through here and cleaning this whole section out, because the mayor is having her inauguration,” said Robert Fulps, 47.

“I don’t know what cleaning this up has to do with that, but I assume … it’ll be on the news and they want it to be clean.”