L.A. taxpayers have been paying for more than 250 empty apartments as part of an initiative Mayor Karen Bass introduced years ago to make housing readily available to unhoused people, according to official data reviewed by LAist. That’s just over a third of the units in the strategy, known as master leasing, the data show.
The vacancies have been tying up tax dollars that could house hundreds of people in other approaches, according to official financial data.
Under master leasing, a local agency uses tax dollars to rent entire apartment buildings, then subleases individual units to unhoused people whose rent is paid with tax-funded subsidies and grants. But local policies have restricted who can move in, leaving units vacant despite taxpayers continuing to pay for them…