L.A. Mayor Karen Bass has announced a win for the city while traveling to Paris as Congress approved $9.34 million in funding to supporting the homeless crisis and boost affordable housing. The appropriations were part of the Fiscal Year 2024 transportation and housing spending bill signed by President Joe Biden over the weekend.
The funding secured by the late Senator Dianne Feinstein, Senator Alex Padilla, Representative Adam Schiff, Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove, Representative Tony Cárdenas, Representative Jimmy Gomez and Representative Brad Sherman will fund needed livability, health, and safety improvements at interim and permanent housing facilities and build more housing on publicly-owned land.
“Our federal partners have shown their commitment, through this funding, to bringing people inside from the streets and to investing in housing so that we can keep more people housed and prevent them from falling into homelessness in the first place,” said Bass. “I thank each of our partners for securing funding to save lives and locking arms to deliver for Angelenos.”
The funding includes $3 million for the the city’s Inside Safe initiative, as well as $3 million for renovations on the Gower Street Apartments; a supportive housing building for seniors who have previously experienced homelessness.
An additional $2.8 million has been allocated for additional supportive housing improvements at other buildings, as well as $500,000 for to prepare a city-owned property on Vermont for construction of a mixed-use project containing 100 percent affordable housing.