Honestly, if you live in Los Angeles, you’ve probably spent the last three years squinting at the sidewalk trying to figure out if anything is actually changing. One day there’s a massive encampment under the 405; the next, it’s gone, replaced by those green metal fences. Then, three weeks later, a single tent pops up. Then two.
It’s a cycle.
But something pretty major just happened. On January 13, 2026, Mayor Bass Los Angeles officially pulled the plug on the city’s state of emergency regarding homelessness. She signed that declaration on her very first day in office back in 2022. Lifting it now feels like a "mission accomplished" moment, but is it? Or is it just a tactical shift because the 2026 re-election campaign is officially heating up?
Why the Emergency Label is Vanishing
Lifting an emergency doesn't mean the crisis is over. Even Bass admitted that. Basically, the emergency status was a bureaucratic cheat code. It allowed the Mayor’s office to bypass the usual months-long bidding wars and red tape to get people into motels through her Inside Safe program.
Now, she says the city has the "tools" to keep moving without the special powers.
But look at the timing. We are deep into January 2026. The June primary is staring her in the face. Critics, including those on the City Council like Tim McOsker, have been grumbling for a year that the emergency shouldn't be permanent. They want transparency. They want to see where the money is going without the "emergency" shroud.
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The Palisades Fire: A Political Scar
If you want to know why her approval ratings are currently underwater—hovering in the low 40s according to recent polls—you have to look at the hills. Specifically, the Pacific Palisades.
A year ago, a devastating wildfire tore through that area, destroying roughly 7,000 homes. It was a nightmare. 12 people died. And where was the Mayor? She was in Ghana.
She’d promised not to take international trips. She took one anyway.
That single decision has become a massive club for her opponents to beat her with. While she was halfway across the world, the "leader of the city" was a ghost. She’s been feuding with the Palisades recovery czar ever since. Residents there are beyond frustrated; they’re angry. They say the rebuilding permits are languishing in the City Council, even though Bass proposed waiving the fees back in April 2025.
Politics is often about vibes. Right now, the vibe in the Palisades is "abandoned."
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Inside Safe by the Numbers
Let's get into the weeds of the homelessness data because that’s the hill this administration lives or dies on. According to the Mayor’s office, as of late 2025:
- 117 operations have been conducted by Inside Safe.
- 5,496 people were brought in from the streets.
- 1,321 people moved into permanent housing.
Think about those numbers for a second. Out of over 5,000 people "saved" from the sidewalk, only about 24% ended up in a permanent home. The rest? They’re in motels, temporary shelters, or they simply disappeared back into the ether of the city.
The RAND Corporation did find a 49% drop in street homelessness in Hollywood. That’s huge. It’s visible. But if you’re one of the 40,000+ people still unhoused in LA, or a business owner in a neighborhood where an encampment just shifted two blocks over, those stats feel like a rounding error.
The 2028 Olympics Shadow
We are now less than 1,000 days away from the 2028 Olympic Games. This is the ticking clock behind every move Mayor Bass Los Angeles makes.
Just this week, the City Council was grilled about a federal task force President Trump announced for Olympic security. There is a lot of anxiety here. People are worried about ICE agents using the Olympics as a pretext for mass deportations or "cleansing" the streets. Bass has to play a very delicate game: she needs federal money for transit and security, but she has to stand as a "bulwark" against a federal administration that has called her city a "trash heap."
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What Most People Get Wrong
The biggest misconception is that Bass is "soft" or just doing "more of the same."
Actually, she’s been surprisingly aggressive with Executive Directive 1 (ED1). This is the policy that lets developers skip public hearings and environmental reviews if they’re building 100% affordable housing. It has accelerated over 30,000 units. That’s not a small feat in a city where building a backyard shed usually takes three years and a blood sacrifice.
She’s moving toward making ED1 a permanent law. That’s where the real fight is. NIMBYs (Not In My Backyard) are sharpening their knives. They hate that they can't block these buildings anymore.
Is a Rematch Coming?
The elephant in the room is Rick Caruso. He’s been a constant critic of the fire response. He’s got the money. He’s got the name. If he jumps in, the 2026 race becomes a $100 million slugfest all over again.
But Bass has some advantages. She’s got the labor unions. She’s got the "defender of LA" status against Washington. And, honestly, crime is down. Homicides have dropped during her tenure. In a city that often feels like it's on the edge of chaos, "slightly less chaos" might be enough to win.
Actionable Insights for Angelenos:
- Watch the Permitting: If you’re trying to build or renovate, keep an eye on the transition of ED1 from an emergency order to permanent law; it’ll dictate how fast your neighborhood changes.
- Track the "Inside Safe" Map: The city now provides data on which encampments are being prioritized. If you have a local issue, the "emergency" may be over, but the Field Intervention Team is still the primary contact for relocations.
- Prepare for 2028: The "Games for All" vision is already fast-tracking transit projects. If you live near a proposed Bus Rapid Transit line, expect construction to hit a fever pitch by the end of this year.
The "emergency" is officially over, but for anyone walking the streets of DTLA or the ruins of the Palisades, the reality on the ground hasn't changed just because a signature was put on a memo.