Five Los Angeles mayoral candidates – U.S. Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), City Attorney Mike Feuer, developer Rick Caruso and Councilmen Kevin de León and Joe Buscaino – participated in a televised debate on March 22 at USC.

Moderated by L.A. Times columnist Erika Smith and Fox 11 anchor Elex Michaelson, organizers invited five of the leading candidates as determined by a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll.

The debate turned contentious early. When candidates were outlining their plans to address homelessness, Buscaino thanked Caruso for “finally joining” the group in a debate. Caruso did not participate in a televised debate last month.

“Listen, Joe, I appreciate the effort you’ve been taking on the City Council, but the reality is … since you’ve been councilman, there’s 700 more people on the streets in your [15th] District alone,” Caruso said. “I don’t know how you quantify success when the problem has gotten worse under your leadership.”

Caruso said his campaign has created a “comprehensive” and “concrete” plan to help house approximately 30,000 of the 40,000 people currently experiencing homelessness in the city. His plan includes declaring a state of emergency and demanding a state and federal response to the issue, according to his website.

“People are living in the streets,” he added. “They’re living in their own waste. It’s a terrible situation we have.”

Bass’ plan also called for an emergency declaration and ensuring that the state and federal government get involved.

“We need to have everything expedited if you’re going to build affordable housing,” she said. “On Day One, I would appoint a chief, and that person would report directly to me.”

De León touted the success that he has seen in his 14th District – specifically the construction of “the largest tiny home village” in the U.S. and securing funding for No Place Like Home.

“Anyone on this stage can make big, bold pronouncements on the issue of homelessness, but there’s one major difference,” he said. “The difference is I’m already doing something about it.”

Buscaino said he also has a plan to create additional beds for unhoused individuals, but the city must try to alleviate substance abuse and mental health problems occurring in its streets.

“It’s irresponsible to say the homelessness issue is only about housing,” he added.

Feuer said his opponents borrowed his idea to declare a state of emergency, but he expanded upon it by suggesting that the city create pop-up locations throughout the city that provide services to unhoused individuals.

“And I’ve done this as city attorney,” he said. “That’s the thing about this race: experience counts.”

The moderators then asked how the candidates would clear encampments and whether they would use the police to do so.

Caruso said he would deploy outreach workers and provide services before clearing encampments.

“Once you have a dry bed, warm food – you have the medical services that they need – you need to give them an option one time,” he said. “You need to give them an option maybe a second time, but a third time, you have to move that encampment because you have to protect the communities that are being impacted by the encampments on the sidewalks.”

Bass said she “would never criminalize poverty,” and that giving a mentally ill individual several chances to move out of an encampment will not work.

“I certainly don’t think you arrest them,” she added. “I do think the police might need to be in the background in case it’s a dangerous situation. But I don’t think you use the police department to arrest people who are in encampments.”

Buscaino, a former LAPD officer, said it is not “criminalizing poverty” by providing unhoused individuals services and clearing city streets.

“When a bed is available in the city of Los Angeles, the sidewalk should not be an option,” he said.

De León said having enough housing stock is key.

“We have to supply the inventory to make sure we can move them from the streets into housing,” he added.

Feuer said offering unhoused individuals an option is a strategy that has worked in the past. When it doesn’t, the city should have a triage location elsewhere in L.A. that offers congregate shelter and basic services, he said.

“Before I go on, Mr. Caruso, you indicated you’re a builder, and I respect that, but I have to say you haven’t done much in the way of building homeless and affordable housing for all the opportunities you’ve had,” Feuer said. “Instead, you’ve opposed rent control, and at the same time you were building luxury housing and opposing rent control, I was standing up for tenants being illegally evicted.”

Caruso responded by saying the city is over-regulated, which makes it difficult on developers.

“If you want to talk about facts and problems in the city – Mike, I’m sorry that you opened this door – your office was raided by federal agents,” Caruso said. “Your office is under investigation, and you’ve got a senior person in your office that’s accusing you of perjury.”

On reducing crime, de León said the city needs to ensure that it is efficiently using its resources before considering increasing the LAPD’s budget.

“We need to hire mental health specialists to get our LAPD officers off the mental health frontlines and back on the line of duty to protect and serve,” he added.

Feuer proposed adding 500 officers while also reforming the LAPD and training officers to deescalate situations.

“We can’t ask the LAPD to do it alone,” he added. “We need to complement that with neighborhood-based violence prevention programs and [by] cleaning up our communities. Just cleaning up a neighborhood has been shown [to] decrease gun violence by 29%.”

Buscaino said he voted against defunding the LAPD and that taking resources away from the department leads to an increase in crime.

“In fact, one of my first actions as mayor is going to refund the LAPD $150 million,” he said.

Caruso referenced his work on the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners following the Rodney King beating. He said he helped reverse the course of the LAPD and promoted community policing, and crime dropped 30%.

“I’ll do it again, because I know how to do it,” Caruso added.

Bass suggested that the city invest in communities in order to suppress crime.

“In my office, I want to have an office of community safety so we can prevent the crimes of the future and make the investments in communities that will do that,” she said.

The candidates were also asked to analyze the performance of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon and current L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti. Further, they discussed the city’s approach to reopening as COVID-19 cases waned.

To watch the debate, visit youtube.com/watch?v=x03PYYkwGWY.