On Oct. 20, the Los Angeles City Council voted 12-2 to enforce a rule that would prevent homeless people from sitting, sleeping, or storing property on the sidewalk within 500 or 1,000 feet of 54 sites across the city. Councilwoman Nithya Raman and Councilman Mike Bonin voted against the motion, saying it violated the very provision it proposed to enforce. Eleven of these sites are in council district 15. Six of these locations are in San Pedro, and two are in Wilmington.
“While I am pleased the City is finally making good on its promise of clean streets for neighborhoods that accept shelters, safe parking, and other solutions to homelessness, this new process is slow, unnecessarily bureaucratic, and monopolizes valuable resources,” said Councilman Joe Buscaino in a press release.
On Oct. 27, Buscaino introduced three motions requesting to ban homeless people from 161 additional locations, all in CD 15. The next city council meeting is on Nov. 2, and the council may act on these motions then.
The 11 sites in CD15 where the council already agreed to the ban are all homeless shelters, where homeless people are prohibited from lying within 1,000 feet. The other sites are in council districts 2 and 3, and some are underpasses, bridges, parks, schools and libraries, where homeless people cannot lie within 500 feet. In both cases, homeless people are only prohibited from lying where the city council has specifically banned them. The council was voting to enforce Los Angeles Municipal Code 41.18, an anti-camping law which went into effect Sept. 3, but had not yet been enforced.
“For the first time in years, the City of Los Angeles will prohibit camping in select public spaces,” Buscaino wrote. “But this is just the beginning. In the near future, I will continue to add new locations, while at the same time supporting the creation of more transitional housing, like tiny homes, so that everyone can come inside and we can see an end to all street camping in Los Angeles.”
People that work for the city will first offer housing or other services to people camping at the sites. Then they will provide a clean-up, which usually involves forcing homeless people to throw away most of their possessions. Two weeks later, the city will put up signs saying people are prohibited from lying in the area.
Councilwoman Nithya Raman said the council was not following the steps it set forth, which the council adopted in September. The first step is that a council member introduces a motion, and homeless engagement teams and multidisciplinary teams fill out encampment assessment forms. The second step is that housing resources and other services are identified and whoever is the lead develops an outreach plan. This is followed by engagement with the homeless people, i.e., city workers try to convince them to go into temporary housing. In steps 3 and 4, the city chooses a date to clean up, and confirms it with the Los Angeles Department of Sanitation. Two weeks after the actual clean up, the lead submits a report on data about housing placement. It’s only after all of this that a council member is supposed to introduce a resolution about putting up signs prohibiting camping in that area.
“I don’t doubt that there has already been outreach to many of the locations that are before us in these resolutions,” Raman said. “I know a lot of council members did talk about the fact that outreach has been regularly happening. But we are being asked today to vote on 54 locations between these four resolutions with no documentation for us, or for the public, that this step-by-step process that we just codified has been followed.”
Councilman Mike Bonin agreed with Raman.
“I’m sure a lot of work has been done,” Bonin said. “But it still isn’t to the level of what we committed to as a body. I’m concerned about us losing the commitment to the street engagement strategy and not making sure that it is adequately resourced.”
Public commenter Rob Kwan said it was stunning to see the long list of sites where camping would be banned.
“I heard that you’re going to be spending $3 million on metal signs,” Kwan said. “That’s three quarters of the ethics commission’s annual budget. We’ve had three former city council members indicted in the last few years, and you’re going to spend three quarters of the ethics commission’s annual budget on metal signs criminalizing the unhoused.”
Buscaino argued in his press release that the city was making it more complicated than necessary.
“This current 30-step process is unnecessary,” Buscaino wrote. “Which is why I am working on placing a measure on the next ballot so that voters can approve an approach that acts with urgency to eliminate street camping in Los Angeles.”
According to the press release, Buscaino’s ballot measure will provide emergency housing for everyone on the streets, as well as drug and mental health services. It will also ban encampments in public areas.
“Anyone who needs a bed will get one, but a choice to refuse housing and services will result in an order to move on,” the press release says.
The press release did not specify how it would create emergency housing for every homeless person in the city, nor did it say how quickly. It also did not address permanent supportive housing.
Amber Sheikh, head of the CD15 Working Group on Homelessness, CD15 city council seat candidates Danielle Sandoval and Tim McOsker, Shari Weaver, director of the coordinated entry system at Harbor Interfaith Services, and Capt. Jay Mastick of the Los Angeles Police Department Harbor Division did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
