# Karen Bass’ homeless victory lap is an expensive tribute to failure

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/karen-bass-homeless-victory-lap-is-an-expensive-tribute-to-failure/
- Published: 2026-11-14T01:43:19+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-14T02:20:29+00:00
- Original publisher: New York Post (publisher lean: Right)
- Original article: https://nypost.com/2026/11/13/opinion/karen-bass-homeless-victory-lap-is-a-tribute-to-failure/
- Topics: World

## Key points

- LA’s $72 million project provides 111 rooms in a converted motel.
- The article puts the cost at about $650,000 per unit.
- It calls for enforcement, sobriety programmes and mental health treatment.

## Summary

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass opened a homeless housing project costing $72 million, but the opinion article argues that its small scale and high price make it a poor measure of progress. It criticises the city’s Housing First approach, saying that providing accommodation without addressing other needs has not meaningfully reduced homelessness.

The facility is a converted Motel 6 with 111 units, which the article calculates at about $650,000 per unit and more than $2,000 per square foot, based on an estimated 300 square feet per room. The author argues that public spending benefits service organisations without solving the problem, and calls for enforcing anti-camping laws, requiring sobriety programmes for shelter residents, and expanding mental health treatment. It also criticises Council member Nithya Raman’s pledge to halve homelessness by the Olympics as an extension of Bass’s approach.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.