Los Angeles City Council passes ordinance limiting homeless settlements amid residents’ frustration

Los Angeles city leaders on Wednesday approved a sweeping ordinance that would restrict homeless settlements in certain areas as the problem continues to become a flashpoint in parts of the city overrun with tents, crime , waste and other quality of life issues.

The city council voted 13-2 to approve the measure, with council members Nithya Raman and Mike Bonin opposed. Mayor Eric Garcetti still has to sign the ordinance for it to come into effect 30 days later.

The ordinance prohibits sleeping and camping in certain areas of the city and within 500 feet of schools, daycares, parks and libraries.

Outreach teams will provide shelter and services before any enforcement takes place. Enforcement will not take place until leaders individually sign each location and outreach workers come back over a three-month period to see if the homeless return.

Additional outreach will be conducted if they do, which means it could take up to four months to move people and clear an encampment, the Los Angeles Times reported.

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Fox News has contacted Garcetti’s office as well as Bonin and Raman’s offices. Both council members face recall efforts regarding their handling of the homelessness and crime crisis in their neighborhoods.

“People want housing,” Bonin said at Wednesday’s meeting. “They don’t want a warehouse. They don’t want shelter. They want housing.”

He noted that the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority had said for several weeks that shelter beds were only available for 39% of the homeless population in Los Angeles County.

In a statement released after the vote, Bonin explained his dissenting vote.

“To be a city where tens of thousands of people sleep on the streets every night is sick and inhumane. To be a city where five people die on the streets every day is barbaric and extremely obscene,” he said. “We are a city of encampments, and it is a shame and a shame.”

“To put it simply, I voted against this ordinance because it tells people who are homeless and homeless and have nowhere to go where they cannot sleep,” he added. “It doesn’t tell them where they can sleep.”

In a Twitter post ahead of the council vote, Raman shared her objections to the ordinance and her reasons for planning to vote against it.

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“Because we set a policy on homelessness in our own districts, Council members end up competing for scarce resources, implementing redundant services and moving camps from place to place,” he said. she wrote. “Today’s ordinance will reinforce this dysfunctional dynamic.”

Critics say the measure will criminalize homelessness in an area struggling with a shortage of affordable housing.

“Bold and creative vision is needed to dramatically increase the housing supply and fix the systems that lead to an influx of homeless people,” said Amy Turk, CEO of the Downtown Women’s Center, a service provider for homeless women. , in a statement to FoxNews. “But implementing the restrictions in the ordinance without first clarifying how we engage homeless residents and where they can ultimately go only increases the risk of displacement and further trauma.

City councilor Paul Koretz disagreed on Wednesday, saying he “instead creates a new framework to keep portions of our public right of way accessible to all.”

In recent months, residents of some neighborhoods have expressed frustration with the settlements and the violent crimes that often accompany them. In Venice, tents are lined up along its famous promenade and have been seen on the beach, with drugs and garbage.

Since the tent city’s expansion, there have been shootings, fires, assaults and complaints of harassment from residents and visitors. A recent video posted online shows a fire inside a tent erected on the promenade while another shows a naked man on the beach in broad daylight as joggers and cyclists pass by.

Mary Ryavec, president of the Venice Stakeholders Association, told Fox News he will watch and see what impact the ordinance has before celebrating.

“I’m not jumping up and down,” he said. “I am encouraged that they have finally taken steps in the right direction, but everything must be implemented.”

Chie Lunn, a Venice resident who is suing the city over its response to the homeless crisis, said drug rehabilitation and job training are also needed to empower many of those living on the streets. a form of structure.

“I hope this will inspire more people living on the streets to use the resources they need when available and those who live on the streets by choice to understand that this is not the place for it.” , she said. Fox News in an SMS. “

Venice resident Deborah Keaton said she was not optimistic about the impact of the ordinance on the large encampment located just 20 feet from her home.

“They must be forced to move,” she told Fox News. “If that doesn’t force them to move to areas where they don’t interfere with homes, schools, and businesses, what’s the point?”

Keaton said she lived about 20 feet from a large tented camp where homeless people hooked up to nearby power lines to run their stereos and televisions late at night.

“They party all night long and the police are called every day to quote them for disturbing the peace. But they are not going anywhere and that will not improve the situation,” she said.

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Bonin, who represents Venice and other parts of the west and was once on the verge of homelessness, and Raman, who has only been in office for a few months and represents Hollywood and other areas, opposed the strong proposals to clean up homeless camps. .

Last month, Bonin said he wanted to clear the Venice encampment by August. In a message to voters on Monday, he said 160 homeless people in Venice had been brought inside and connected to permanent housing services.