Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti approved an order that would prohibit homeless encampment in many public areas, as the law would be effective in a month. Encampments will no longer be permissible within about 150 meters of schools, bridges, parks, libraries, homeless shelters, and overpasses. The order will also restrict individuals from sleeping not just in the said areas but also in bike lanes and sidewalks that would block the traffic flow.
The legislative body of Los Angeles voted for the order, in a recent procedure where Mike Bonin and Nithya Raman were the two councilors who voted against it. Bonin stated that people want a standard place of accommodation but not shelter or warehousing. LAHSA has shelter beds available for a little over one-third of Los Angeles County’s unsheltered population. Therefore, Bonin rhetorically asked where the rest of the population could go and sleep.
Holding notices that read ‘‘Poverty is not a crime’’ and “Services, not sweeps”, protestors showed opposition to the order in Downtown Los Angeles. With Mayor Garcetti signing the order into law, housing justice activist Kenneth Mejia stated that the council and mayor criminalized homelessness.
Mejia said that he does not understand how fining individuals without much money, or making arrest threats against them, would help their circumstances. He wondered how the people would pay for those fines as well as where they would go when they are unsure where they could rest or sleep.
Most of the councilors supported the ordinance, and they claimed that it was required since encampments and sidewalk occupants affect the Americans with Disabilities Act.
About the ordinance, Councilor Joe Buscaino stated that street encampments pose a threat to the unhoused and housed. Therefore, Buscaino asked why the former population would be let in anywhere, in the event of an alternative being available even in his district. President of LA City Council Nury Martinezalso expressed his disapproval of encampments, while citing the importance of building more shelters.
Martinez stated that a state of people inhabiting encampments cannot be made to appear normal. Martinez said that it is important to promote the construction of shelters for homeless people instead. As for Martinez, the priority should be housing, whereas it should be a mandate to remove people from the street at the earliest. Martinez also said that he would not condone encouraging individuals to occupy the street while normalizing this lifestyle and letting them die.