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Karen Bass Officially Kicks Off Her Run For Mayor Of Los Angeles At Saturday Event

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) - Rep. Karen Bass used the kickoff event for her campaign for mayor of Los Angeles Saturday to reiterate her pledge of solving homelessness  if elected.

"In 1994, we treated the emergency (of the earthquake) as an emergency," Bass, D-Los Angeles, said at Los Angeles Trade Tech College. "We mobilized local, state, federal governments, the private and nonprofit sectors. Neighbors helped neighbors. We found temporary shelter and rebuilt our city. In record-breaking time. We can fix our city again. Forty-thousand people on the street is an emergency. Solving this emergency -- solving homelessness -- will be my overwhelming top priority as mayor."

Bass also pledged to "work to support and strengthen the business community because I care about income inequality, and we need to make L.A. attractive to businesses, large and small, that provide living wage jobs so people can afford homes."

"We need to ensure that minority- and women-owned businesses are included and fully participate," Bass said. "We need to use the platform that the mayor has, the bully pulpit and formal mayoral authority, to celebrate our city, recruit employers, clean neighborhoods and cut red tape, so that we can attract good jobs to L.A. and rebuild our middle class so that we can attract jobs that pay for mortgages, that pay for college savings, that pay for retirement and that offer dignity and stability."

Supporter Tiffany Haddish speaks in support of U.S. Rep. Karen Bass' run for Mayor of LA. (credit: CBS)

Emmy- and Grammy-winning comedian Tiffany Haddish, also spoke, recounting her upbringing in foster care and being homeless.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who announced his endorsement of Bass Friday, was among the other speakers, along with Rep. Judy Chu, D-Monterey Park.

Bass would be Los Angeles' first female mayor and the second Black mayor, after Tom Bradley, who was mayor from 1973 to 1993.

Bass' focus on homelessness echoes the rest of the field seeking to succeed Mayor Eric Garcetti, who is barred for running for reelection because of term limits.

City Attorney Mike Feuer has pledged to declare a homelessness state of emergency on his first day in office and to "appoint and empower a high- level point person on homelessness, who will report directly to me."

Feuer said his "goal will be to make shelter available for all by the end of my first term."

Councilman Joe Buscaino has also described homelessness as an emergency and pledged "to treat it with that level of urgency." His plan on homeless includes building "more housing, faster" and connecting people experiencing homelesness with temporary housing.

Councilman Kevin de Leon has called homelessness "the moral issue of our lifetime." He has pledged to create 25,000 new housing units by 2025, cut red tape to expedite construction and permitting, require affordable housing in new buildings and identify opportunities to leverage unused public and retail spaces.

(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)

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