LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS

Mayor and several L.A. city councilmembers meet with Newsom and other Sacramento leaders

By LINH TAT | UPDATED: February 28, 2024 at 10:53 a.m



The city of Los Angeles will get nearly $60 million in long-awaited federal reimbursements from FEMA for costs spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic – part of a larger package worth more than $300 million coming to the L.A. area, officials announced Tuesday, Feb. 27.

The news from L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and a delegation of Los Angeles city councilmembers followed two days of meetings with Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state officials in Sacramento. Bass and councilmembers used the trip to the state capitol to press for funding and flexibility to address homelessness and housing needs, and to ask for faster action from Sacramento in paying back the city’s huge bill from the pandemic and the destructive recent winter storm. The Los Angeles Unified School District, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Loma Linda University Medical Center will also get reimbursements, according to an announcement from the mayor’s office.

Bass, in a phone interview with this newspaper shortly after her announcement, said that heading into the trip, L.A. officials did not know if the big chunk of money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would come through. “It was definitely still up in the air,” she said. “We certainly knew we were contending for it, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to get it, especially in these tough economic times.” | READ MORE

RELATED: LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS

LA wants to use ‘master leasing’ approach to housing for homeless

By CITY NEWS SERVICE | UPDATED: February 23, 2024 at 5:12 p.m. | FULL ARTICLE

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, City Council President Paul Krekorian, in background, are seen in this July 10, 2023, press conference. (Photo David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)