Even LA starts to ramp up homeless encampment cleanups
Responding to pressure from residents and Gov. Newsom, Los Angeles (which has been slow to abandon its failed Housing First orthodoxy) is starting to move more aggressively to remediate longstanding, inhumane homeless encampments in the City of Angels. The LA Times reports.
A homeless encampment that neighbors said had been growing at Dockweiler State Beach in Playa del Rey was taken down on Thursday, city officials said.
The encampment was occupying a large slice of the beach’s four-mile shoreline next to Los Angeles International Airport, nearby residents said, and had been ignored by state and local government officials even as its problems grew more noticeable in recent weeks.
The cleanup arrives more than a month after Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened to take away state funding from counties that don’t show improvement on tackling the homelessness crisis.
Dockweiler State Beach sits under the LAX flight path and is in an unusual jurisdictional position — it is part of California’s state park system, its custodial maintenance and lifeguard services are managed by Los Angeles County, and, through an agreement with the county, policing and code enforcement are handled by the city of Los Angeles, according to a county spokesperson.
This has proven to be a sore issue for Playa del Rey residents who claim that none of the local agencies have taken the initiative to address the encampment.
Garbage, campfires, hypodermic needles and feces litter the beach, residents said.
In June, a Supreme Court ruling offered clarity about how cities and local governments can enforce laws restricting people from sleeping or camping in public spaces. The court decision said it was not “cruel and unusual” punishment to forbid a person from sleeping on the streets or in parks, even if there was no adequate shelter space available.
That ruling has resulted in a more proactive approach from local governments.
In Long Beach, city staff are working to identify encampments that pose a public threat or block access to public services. They are in the process of targeting encampments where people have repeatedly declined to accept services from the city.
Read the whole thing here.
Related:
LA case study: Illegal homeless camps pollute beach water with “toxic” bacteria
Health, safety concerns central to Newsom's more aggressive directive on homeless encampments
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