Evidence

Why are they lying?

Below is a selection of direct correspondence with City Council members and PR they have put out on social media and in newsletters. The lack of communication and blatant lies demonstrate how they have failed to hold up their end of the bargain to collaborate and work with unhoused folks and community organizations. 

Council District 11

This is a screenshot from a Traci Park newsletter. 
Nobody from this encampment is receiving meals, medical services, or customized needs as the council member claims. 
In fact, the "before" image shows the destroyed home of an unhoused man who was in the hospital undergoing an amputation at the time of the Inside Safe operation. A volunteer from Free Food Collective was driving him home from the hospital when LA Sanitation trashed all his belongings without his consent. Caseworkers on site said he had to be present at the encampment in order to exchange his tent for a hotel room. 
Representatives from Council District 11 said they would make sure St. Joseph Center knew about his case, but his belongings were still trashed without his consent. He screamed and jumped out of the car when he got home to see all his stuff gone.
Visit our Testimonials page to see first-hand accounts from residents from this encampment that call out this lie. Some people from this encampment have been moved over five times since January 30th. Nobody is getting mental health support or health care.
This leaked email shows Traci Park's office preparing to do a massive CARE+ sweep of unhoused residents living around A Bridge Home in Venice. There was no Inside Safe operation planned at this time. The Mayor got wind of this major sweep and intervened by converting these planned sweeps to an Inside Safe operation.
From Venice Citation Clinic about the Inside Safe sweeps in Venice: "I was told that this is voluntarily. I disagree with that description. The blocks were closed and guarded by the LAPD. Sanitation and St Joseph were going to the people over and over. I saw sanitation going to tents without any of the tons of St Joseph or LAHSA present. There is a lot of pressure. This is was sanitation sweep on a day with 100% rain in the forecast.
Also these hotel rooms are supposedly good until the people are permanently housed, but there are no written contracts and what are the rules?"
Council District 5
Community organizations sent a demand letter to Council District 5 leading up to the 6th & Fairfax Inside Safe operation on 2/10/23.
CPRA showing internal Council District 5 email regarding the Mayor's decision to move unhoused participants from the Silver Lake Hotel to the Grand Hotel downtown. In this case, The People Concern (or "TPC") is tasked with moving people without notice, and the Mayor's office (via Mercedes Marquez, Chief of Housing and Homelessness Solutions)  attempts to market the Grand Hotel to Councilmember Yaroslavsky as a great placement for her constituents. The Grand is known for its jail-like conditions, where residents don't even receive a key to their own room.
Council District 13
Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez passes off all responsibility to the Mayor's office for the displacement of Inside Safe participants.
Council District 13 claimed not to know about any Inside Safe operations planned in their district, but councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez showed up to this hotel in his district to oversee the displacement of participants staying there.
KnockLA article including interviews with residents at Hotel Silver Lake about their displacement by Council District 13, the Mayor's office, and the People Concern.
There were no services or care present at the Inside Safe sweep.
In fact, PATH told residents of this encampment the wrong start date for the operation, resulting in chaos, anxiety and confusion. These recurring failures create a deep sense of mistrust, undermining any relationship between unhoused residents, service providers and the Council District 13 homeless team.
inside safe hugo lies.mp4

In this video, Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez claims to have led the first Inside Safe operation in CD13 with care and services. He fails to mention that several people from the CD5 operation were forced to move out of Hotel Silver Lake to make way for new participants from his district--despite his earlier assurances that they would not have to leave.

This is not care. 

Mayor Bass

Inside Safe is NOT voluntary.

The Mayor’s claim that Inside Safe is voluntary is completely false. The tactics they use make the program anything but voluntary: having police at Inside Safe operations, scheduling brutal sweeps to destroy unhoused people’s items at the operations, forcing participants to exchange a tent for a hotel room in an unknown location, boarding a bus without any clue where it’s taking you, and criminalizing the encampment space after the sweep is over with laws like 41.18. A program is not voluntary if unhoused people are left to speculate about the myriad potentially deadly consequences of declining to enter Inside Safe including being labeled as “service resistant,” losing access to existing services they rely on, and police violence. This isn’t voluntary. It’s inhumane. During our press conference on Monday, many unhoused Angelenos bravely spoke up about these experiences and more. It’s deeply inappropriate to downplay the experiences they shared and unacceptable to cast their real-lived experiences as “institutional problems.” Several people spoke up about not receiving any of the services and care the Mayor has claimed, over and over again, that Inside Safe is providing. We do not accept these blatant lies.