Los Angeles mayoral challenger Spencer Pratt on Friday blasted incumbent Mayor Karen Bass’s approach to addressing homeless people in the city while also suggesting that Seattle would “welcome them.”

Pratt, a former reality TV star from MTV’s “The Hills,” claimed in an interview with ABC 7 Los Angeles reporter Josh Haskell that the city’s people without housing are “not homeless, they’re drug addicts” using meth and fentanyl. He claimed there is enough housing and beds for “everyone living on the street.”

“They are choosing to be on the street because they want to do drugs, they don’t want rules, they want to have animals to abuse,” Pratt continued. “This idea that they’re forced on the street right now is a lie that our city is perpetuating.”

Pratt also said the city’s homeless residents were “bused in by scam” rehabilitation centers, “scam NGOs [nongovernmental organizations]” and “scam homeless nonprofits.” He claimed it was a lie that the city’s homeless people were left out on the streets and that they chose to not be housed, fed or treated.

The former reality TV star said he will set up a treatment facility, with federal assistance, for homeless people. Haskell asked where this facility would be and, specifically, if it would be in Los Angeles County, but Pratt said it would be on “federal — beautiful — federal land property” before stating they will go north, outside of the city and outside of California.

“They’re all going to Seattle, where the mayor will welcome them,” Pratt said, referring to Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, a democratic socialist.

Pratt also dismissed the notion said by Haskell that this facility would take time to build.

“Literally I went to Washington and I saw miles of the most insane, prefabricated housing and building,” he said. “I asked all the CEOs of these companies — I asked, ‘How long does this take?'”

Pratt added that after he met with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), he was told construction on a facility would take three days and would be cheaper than taking over an existing building.

The Hill has reached out to FEMA and HUD for comment.

As of 2025, more than 43,000 people are homeless in Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

Pratt’s suggestion of removing homeless people from the city and outside of it resembles past efforts by other municipalities in the region during the late 20th century that would load buses with homeless people only to drop them off several miles away in downtown Los Angeles.

Homelessness, an issue that the city has long struggled to tackle amid rising rent and housing prices and that surged under former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, remains one of Bass’s key issues that she had hoped to eliminate by the end of her first term.

The city has lowered its homeless count by almost 18 percent since before she entered office, according to the city’s official website. Bass has accelerated the process of building more than 42,000 affordable housing units in the city, while also moving more than 20,000 homeless people into temporary shelters.

Last month, she secured more than $300 million in funding for affordable housing.

“For decades, Angelenos have been forced to bear the burden of rising rents and eviction notices because City Hall failed to deliver housing and support for tenants. We are changing that broken system,” Bass said in a statement. “This historic investment will provide relief to renters impacted by last year’s fires and will increase LA’s affordable housing supply. I want every Angeleno to be able to afford to live in their neighborhood.”

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