美国国家公共电台 NPR--LA Mayor Bass plans to spend $1.3 billion to address homelessness in the city

LA Mayor Bass¹ plans to spend $1.3 billion to address homelessness in the city

Transcript²

In her first budget, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass wants to spend $1.3 billion combatting homelessness. Some advocates say the plan doesn't get to the root of LA's crisis.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

The new mayor of the city of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, plans to spend a record $1.3 billion addressing homelessness in the coming fiscal³ year. But what can all that money buy? And will it get to the root of a crisis that's left an estimated 42,000 people unhoused in LA? KCRW's Anna Scott reports.

ANNA SCOTT, BYLINE⁴: Sixty-year-old Yolanda Orellana (ph) had lived on and off in a makeshift tent village for months when late last year, outreach workers offered to take her and others at the encampment to a motel.

YOLANDA ORELLANA: First I was skeptical⁵. And then they said it was going to be a different way of doing things with the - a new mayor, is it? We have a new mayor. And she, you know, wants to help with the homeless. And so I was like, why not?

SCOTT: The motel Orellana went to was part of a program started by that new mayor, Karen Bass, Inside Safe. It aims to break up large street encampments one by one and move people indoors fast. Bass plans to devote a quarter of the $1.3 billion to scaling up Inside Safe. Some unhoused people and their advocates question that. They say the program's disorganized and that services and meals for people in it have been spotty.

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ORELLANA: They have not kept their promise. We don't know what's going to happen. It's like being in "The Twilight⁶ Zone."

SCOTT: This is Yolanda Orellana at a press conference earlier this month held to call out the problems with Inside Safe. And Mayor Bass says they have a fair point.

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KAREN BASS: We have essentially⁷ been building the plane while flying it. We are stretching all of the resources. And in the course of doing this, we are seeing lots of weaknesses, lots of problems. And we are moving to address those problems.

SCOTT: She says the problems reflect longstanding gaps in LA's social services system.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BASS: I could have said, let's spend the next month, two months, three months, designing a program that will meet every single need. To me, that is the antithesis⁸ of how you would respond to an emergency.

SCOTT: Instead, Bass says, she's prioritizing getting people off the streets as quickly as possible and doing what she can to build a pathway to permanent housing. Besides renting rooms for people like Orellana, Bass' spending plan calls for buying motels and converting them to transitional housing. She also wants to create new substance abuse treatment beds and provide rental⁹ assistance to vulnerable seniors, among other things. But analysts¹⁰ say even all that might not be enough to get to the root of the issue.

JASON WARD¹¹: The homelessness crisis we have here has been decades in the making.

SCOTT: Jason Ward is the associate director of the RAND Center on Housing and Homelessness.

WARD: It really comes down to a lack of housing production.

SCOTT: The housing shortage has led to a massive affordability¹² crisis that's pushing people into homelessness faster than the system can catch them.

WARD: In an ideal world, what we want to do is work backwards¹³ from having some sort of permanent source of housing for people. It seems like the way we're taking this now is, like, we're working forward from, like, let's get people off the streets.

SCOTT: Which, he says, is incredibly important. But it's hard to see now whether it'll lead to fewer people experiencing homelessness or just a less visible crisis.

ORELLANA: Welcome to this community room. You know, and there's a couch, TV. And we have tables. We can play cards or whatever.

SCOTT: The pandemic showed that hotel or motel rooms do work to transition some people from homelessness to permanent housing. And it worked for Yolanda Orellana. Earlier this year, she moved to a shared home in south LA. She says it's changed her daily life.

ORELLANA: And the self-esteem because, oh, my gosh, being in that - where we were, where I was, yeah, I felt like a fish in a fishbowl. I mean, I didn't even want to get out of the tent.

SCOTT: She says she still doesn't have all the support she needs, like a consistent case manager. But it's a lot better than the streets.

For NPR News, I'm Anna Scott in Los Angeles.

1 bass   

n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴

参考例句：

• He answered my question in a surprisingly deep bass.他用一种低得出奇的声音回答我的问题。
• The bass was to give a concert in the park.那位男低音歌唱家将在公园中举行音乐会。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

6 twilight   

n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期

参考例句：

• Twilight merged into darkness.夕阳的光辉融于黑暗中。
• Twilight was sweet with the smell of lilac and freshly turned earth.薄暮充满紫丁香和新翻耕的泥土的香味。

7 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

8 antithesis   

n.对立；相对

参考例句：

• The style of his speech was in complete antithesis to mine.他和我的讲话方式完全相反。
• His creation was an antithesis to academic dogmatism of the time.他的创作与当时学院派的教条相对立。

9 rental   

n.租赁，出租，出租业

参考例句：

• The yearly rental of her house is 2400 yuan.她这房子年租金是2400元。
• We can organise car rental from Chicago O'Hare Airport.我们可以安排提供从芝加哥奥黑尔机场出发的租车服务。

10 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

11 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

12 affordability   

可购性

参考例句：

• Performance-Based Logistics Affordability: Can We Afford Categorical Conversion to Performance-Based Acquisition? 基于性能的后期的可承受性：能否担负得起向基于性能的采办的无条件的转变？
• There would be no crisis of affordability, as't for food or clothing. 就想食物与服装一样，因为供给没有危机。

13 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。