People from across the UCLA School of Law community welcomed Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass to the law school on April 12 for a high-level forum on the key role that philanthropic enterprises can play in solving the homelessness crisis.
“You have to address the problem comprehensively, there’s no little solution here ... one of the first things that we have to figure out how to do is to prevent people from becoming unhoused to begin with.”
Bass and Murray detailed several responses to homelessness that they have implemented while the magnitude of the issue has ballooned. “You have to address the problem comprehensively, there’s no little solution here,” Bass said, in stressing the complexity of the problem. For example, “one of the first things that we have to figure out how to do is to prevent people from becoming unhoused to begin with. … [But] there is no model to prevent homelessness.”
Another intervention that she and Murray discussed was building affordable long-term housing, including on public lands. But that, she added, brings other challenges. “I don’t want to force things in neighborhoods because that will create ferocious NIMBYism and unending lawsuits,” Bass said. She detailed how the city is working together with people living in neighborhoods so that they welcome new housing for people in need. “We need an all-hands-on-deck situation here. All of you can help educate the people in your neighborhoods that the world is not going to end if you build affordable housing.”
Murray said that collaboration – between the city and the nonprofit, and between those entities and neighbors – is key. “If you go and talk to [neighbors], you can usually get a majority of them to support what you’re doing,” he said. “But what you have to do is, you have to promise people that you will manage it well. You have to promise people that there won’t be tents out in front of the building. You have to promise people that there’ll be active services.”
Murray also underscored the importance of “livability” in the units that are built for homeless people. “You’ve got to make it such that they want to stay there,” he said.
Considering all of the factors and individuals involved, Murray said, “We have to define what a ‘win’ is” – be it simply moving people off the streets or doing that in addition to helping them get affordable housing and providing them with resources such as medical care.
Ultimately, Bass encouraged the students and others in the audience to help in the work that she and her nonprofit partners are doing together to address homelessness – a massive effort that balances immediate action to get people off the streets while building sustainable programs that adjust to avoid unintended consequences. “This problem is solvable,” Bass said. “Every single person here has skin in the game.”
The Lowell Milken Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofits will present its next public event online on June 6, as part of a series, “The Modern C-Suite,” that is produced by the law school’s executive education program. The center’s panel presentation features distinguished nonprofit professionals and shines a light on the biggest challenges that nonprofit leaders face today.
Join us as we sit down with the Mayor for a report on the state of our unhoused community. What positive results can she share with us? What have been the greatest challenges? What are the roles of philanthropy, government, and business in solving this crisis? What can each of us do to support this herculean effort?
Keynote Speaker: The Honorable Karen Bass, Mayor of the City of Los Angeles
In conversation with: Kevin Murray, President & CEO, Weingart Center Association
With Dean Michael Waterstone to make welcome and introductory remarks
Date: Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Time: 12:15pm – 1:15pm
Location: UCLA School of Law, room 1457
RSVP: Register here. Registration required to attend.
Co-Sponsored by: Lowell Milken Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofits
Maurice Salter Endowed Lecture in Nonprofits and Philanthropy
A conversation with pioneering conservationist Kris Tompkins about how to forge an environmental career dedicated to public service.
Kris Tompkins is president and co-founder of Tompkins Conservation. She began her journey as an environmentalist in Southern California as one of the first six employees of Patagonia. She went on to lead the company for many years before she and her husband, Doug Tompkins (founder of The North Face and co-founder of Esprit), left their business careers to devote their lives to addressing the climate and extinction crises. Tompkins currently oversees projects in Chile and Argentina working toward creating parklands, marine conservation areas, and rewilding—the process of protecting and restoring ecosystems. Tompkins was the subject of “Wild Life,” a documentary from the Oscar-winning duo behind “Free Solo.”
Tompkins will join Emmett Institute Staff Attorney Juan Pablo Escudero and Jill Horwitz, Faculty Director of the Lowell Milken Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofits, in a conversation about her conservation work from Southern California to South America and lessons for those beginning their environmental career.
Lunch will be provided on a first-come basis to those who RSVP by 03/31/2024.
Please contact Heather Morphew, morphew@law.ucla.edu with any questions.
When retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor died in December 2023, the nation bid farewell to a historic jurist and figure in American government.