Metro welcomes Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass as the newest member of the Metro Board of Directors. With her swearing in as the mayor of the City of Los Angeles in December, she replaced former Mayor Eric Garcetti.

With her focus on providing a unified approach to addressing the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles, Bass’s appointment to the Metro Board is expected to be pivotal in helping Metro further advance its initiatives to connect homeless individuals on its buses and trains to services, and ultimately reduce the number of people seeking shelter on the system.

On her first day in office, Mayor Bass declared a state of emergency on homelessness and activated the city’s Emergency Operations Center. Bass has already met with numerous city departments, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) and Metro to discuss her strategy to pursue a unified homelessness approach.

“I heartily welcome Karen Bass to the Metro Board,” said Glendale City Council Member and Metro Board Chair and Ara J. Najarian. “As the City of L.A.’s new mayor, Karen brings a strong agenda to improve public safety and address the homeless crisis facing our region. I share these priorities. Karen will make a tremendous contribution to our Board’s ongoing efforts to improve safety and create a better transit experience for all our Metro riders in the years ahead.”

“I am excited to join the Metro Board because our public transportation system is profoundly important to improving opportunity, equity, health and, of course, mobility, across Los Angeles and beyond,” said Mayor Karen Bass. “As I continue to prioritize housing people, I also look forward to making sure the City of Los Angeles and Metro are locking arms to help people move indoors where they are safe and can access the services they need to stay inside for good.”

Mayor Bass visited Metro’s Lorena Plaza affordable housing site in Boyle Heights recently to announce that she has signed an executive directive to expedite the city’s approval and permitting process for affordable housing projects in Los Angeles. The directive requires city departments to conduct all reviews and issue approvals for 100% affordable housing projects within 60 days, among others. The directive will help accelerate Metro’s own planned affordable housing joint developments. The agency’s goal is to create 10,000 transit-connected, affordable housing units on Metro-owned land by 2031.  Approximately 5,000 of those units would be income-restricted.

“Mayor Karen Bass has been an incredible leader for our region, from Sacramento to Washington,” said Stephanie Wiggins, CEO of Metro. “She understands the challenges and opportunities facing Los Angeles in the years ahead, especially as it relates to addressing the homelessness crisis, and giving everyone equitable access to opportunity. I look forward to working with her as a member of the Metro Board of Directors.”

Mayor Bass is no stranger to Metro; the agency worked with her on a wide variety of issues in her previous roles as a member of Congress and as Speaker of the State Assembly, from rallying funding support for Metro’s infrastructure projects, to helping support the agency’s transition to a zero-emission transit fleet. Most prominently, Bass championed a provision in the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that allowed Metro to use its contracting authority to incorporate local hiring provision on federally funded construction projects, which was not previously allowed.

In addition to her role on the Board, Mayor Bass will serve on Metro’s Planning and Programming Committee, which provides development, review and approval of agency planning and programming issues. She will also serve on the Executive Management Committee, which oversees the implementation of agency policies. Lastly, she will serve on the 2028 Olympics Committee, which is tasked with preparing Metro transit services for the upcoming games.

The 13-member voting Metro Board of Directors is comprised of the five Los Angeles County Supervisors, four members appointed by the Los Angeles County City Selection Committee, and four members from the City of Los Angeles, comprised of the Mayor and three of their appointees. The position of Board Chair rotates between the three groups. One non-voting member is also appointed by the Governor of California.

For more information about the Metro Board of Directors, visit https://www.metro.net/about/board-administration/.