Spencer Pratt says homeless addicts will leave LA for Seattle if city ends permissive policies

Mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt is putting Seattle at the center of his warning about Los Angeles’ homelessness crisis, saying that if LA stops funding what he described as a broken nonprofit system, many drug-addicted transients will leave for cities with more permissive policies.

Asked by ABC7’s Josh Haskell about his plan for “the over 40,000 homeless in Los Angeles,” Pratt pushed back, saying, “Well, they’re not homeless, they’re drug addicts. Most of these people are addicted to fentanyl and meth.”

The former reality TV star said LA already has shelter capacity available, but that the vagrants “are choosing to be on the street because they want to do drugs. They don’t want rules. They don’t want to listen.” He argued that the current narrative around homelessness is false. “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.”

Pratt said addicts are staying outside because “You can do fentanyl and sewer meth on the sidewalk with no repercussions.”

When Haskell asked how quickly Pratt could build his proposed treatment facility, Pratt said he had already spoken with federal agencies and prefabricated housing companies, including FEMA and HUD. Pratt said the facility would be built on “beautiful federal land property,” adding, “When I’m mayor, I’ll go meet with the federal government, and I’ll get the property,” he said.

Pratt said the coming Olympics would give federal officials every reason to help Los Angeles clean up. “Everybody in the government wants LA to be the number one most beautiful city,” Pratt said. “They will work with me to give me the land I need.”

He then turned directly to Seattle, saying many people currently living on LA’s streets are not from the city and would leave if the money stopped flowing. “These 40,000 people, 60 percent of them, City Watch just announced this week, are not from Los Angeles. They’re not from California,” Pratt said. “These people have been bused in by scam rehabs, scam NGOs, scam homeless nonprofits.”

Pratt added, “These people, when I unplug them and say, [you're] not taking our tax money anymore, they’re all going to Seattle where the mayor will welcome them.”

Seattle’s crisis on the streets has exploded in the last decade due to drug abuse, officials allowing encampments, and soft-on-crime policies that critics say have attracted addicts and transients from across the US. Pratt said his plan would distinguish between addicts who need treatment and criminals who need jail. “The people that want to keep doing drugs and live on the sidewalk, a lot of these people are going to leave,” he said. “The other ones, there’s a lot of criminals… They’re going to jail.”

Pratt has said his proposal is about restoring order while offering addicts a real path back into society through mandatory treatment, recovery support, and job opportunities. “We have the money, we have the resources, and we have the facilities,” Pratt said.