Republican mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt revealed in an interview on Friday that his plan to address the city’s growing homeless crisis includes shipping many of the homeless off to Seattle and putting many in jail, as the city's Democrat government has failed to mitigate an issue that has long been at crisis levels.
He argued that Los Angeles doesn’t have an issue with homelessness, but rather an issue with drug addicts and criminals, many of whom simply don’t care to seek the help offered by the city or state government. As a result, he said many belong in jail, while many others don’t belong in the city at all, having been bused in by what he described as scam rehab centers, nonprofits, and NGOs.
NEW: Spencer Pratt fires back at reporter after he was asked about his plan for the homeless, says they will all end up in Seattle.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 25, 2026
Reporter: "What are your plans for the over 40,000 homeless in Los Angeles?"
Pratt: "Well, they're not homeless, they're drug addicts... These… pic.twitter.com/rLaxyvKF0a
"What are your plans for the over 40,000 homeless in Los Angeles?" ABC7 Los Angeles' Josh Haskell asked.
"Yeah, it's, well, they're not homeless, they're drug addicts. Most of these people are addicted to fentanyl and meth," Pratt replied.
"Are you saying they don't have homes?" Haskell pressed.
There is places for all of these people to sleep in LA, no matter what anybody tells you. We have housing and shelter for everyone that's living on the street. They are choosing to be on the street because they want to do drugs. They don't want rules. They don't want to listen. They want to have animals to abuse. This idea that they're forced on the street right now is a lie that our city is perpetuating. We've paid $24 billion to house these 40,000 people. There are spots for all of these people. They are choosing because they're an addict and you can do fentanyl and sewer meth on the sidewalk with no repercussions. These places are not as, they have to follow some rules. You can't torture a dog in some of these houses. You can't just attack people. You can't just be naked.
Pratt went on to say that much of the city’s homeless population belongs in jail, and that many aren’t even from Los Angeles. For those who are non-native, he plans on shipping them off to Seattle, where the mayor would welcome them with open arms.
He added that there are other categories, but the idea that Los Angeles needs better infrastructure to deal with the crisis is simply false. The city already has the resources to deal with those who are truly homeless; the simple fact of the matter is that the vast majority don’t fall into that category.
Let me explain something. These 40,000 people, 60 percent of them, City [Journal] just announced this week, are not from Los Angeles. They're not from California. These people have been bused in by scam rehabs, scam NGOs, scam homeless nonprofits. These people, when I unplug them and say, we're not taking our tax money anymore, they're all going to Seattle, where the mayor will welcome them. These are products to a lot of people. So the people that want to keep doing drugs and live on the sidewalk, there are a lot of these people are going to leave.
"The other ones, there's a lot of criminals," he said. "There's people that are getting naked in front of kids. They're going to jail. The people that are torturing animals, they're going to jail. So not everyone goes in the same box. So we have the money, we have the resources, and we have the facilities."
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