Fix The City Sues LA Over Mayor's Emergency Powers And Homeless Crisis

LOS ANGELES — The nonprofit organization Fix The City announced it filed a lawsuit Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court against the city of Los Angeles over Mayor Karen Bass' emergency powers in addressing the homelessness crisis.

Fix the City advocates for responsible urban planning and governance.

According to an article on the FOX11 website, the lawsuit challenges the mayor's use of emergency powers, which they say enables the mayor to "overstep her authority by wielding emergency powers that stretch beyond their intended scope."

"... The mayor can unilaterally execute contracts, suspect competitive bidding laws, issue new rules, orders, and regulations that take effect immediately, and commandeer property — all without any due process, any requirement of public hearings or public involvement of any kind including the city's own neighborhood councils," according to a statement from Fix the City.

According to City News Service, Mayor Karen Bass' office did not immediately respond to requests for a comment. The Los Angeles Times reported that Clara Karger, a mayoral spokesperson, said "The complaint was just filed and we will take time to review it."

In the lawsuit, Fix the City seeks to "rescind three executive orders issued by Bass as part of the
homelessness emergency, two of which were written to speed up the city's review and approval of homeless shelters and affordable housing."

A third serves as "the backbone of the mayor's Inside Safe initiative, which has been moving unhoused residents off the streets and into temporary and permanent housing," the Los Angeles Times reported.

City News Service reported that immediately after taking office, Bass declared a state of emergency on homelessness in December. The mayor reworked her emergency declaration in
July, which was approved by the council as well.

The declaration authorizes Bass "to commandeer property and use it for temporary housing, suspend competitive bidding on contracts that last less than a year and issue orders and directives aimed at addressing the housing and homelessness emergency," the Times reported.

"No one believes that homelessness isn’t a crisis, and the City already declared a homelessness crisis in 2015 in response," Fix The City said in its statement. "We take no issue with the declaration of a crisis of homelessness provided that such a declaration does not deprive the public of its rights."

According to Fix The City, the concern is "whether the existence of chronic conditions such as homelessness and affordability are being used to avoid public discourse, due process and transparency through a declaration of a local emergency meant to deal with emergent and unexpected occurrences such as earthquakes."

The lawsuit aims to compel the city to follow proper procedures, including obtaining necessary approvals and engaging with the public in addressing homelessness rather than relying solely on emergency powers.

Read more at the Los Angeles Times.

City News Service contributed to this report.