LA City Council Delays Vote to Criminalize Homelessness
On Tuesday, Nov. 23, the Los Angeles City Council tabled Item 22, a measure which seeks to criminalize “sitting, lying, and sleeping in public areas'', as shelters throughout the city experience forced closures due to COVID-19 health restrictions. 38 shelters in the downtown area are on outbreak status and are unable to shelter any additional people.
Two unhoused individuals tend to their encampment spaces in Skid Row in Los Angeles, California Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2021. (Gavin Quinton | The Corsair)
Kendall Moran, a caretaker and event coordinator with the Midnight Mission homeless shelter in Skid Row, said that shelters in Los Angeles are forced to turn away unhoused people due to the shelter’s outbreak status. “The Public Health Department will shut us down if we have just one positive case,” Moran said. “We have been on and off outbreak status for many weeks, if not months, as are many other shelters.”
Council Member Joe Buscaino, who proposed Item 22, said during the City Council session “There are safer places to go. Hundreds of beds go unused every night. Taxpayer-funded beds.” Buscaino, 15th district representative, is currently running for Los Angeles mayor on a platform that puts the homelessness issue in LA at the forefront of public policy.
Regarding this, Moran said, “We have many empty beds but we’re not able to intake anyone, so if you criminalize homelessness and encampments, they truly have nowhere else to go.”
A motion for the law to be kicked back to the Homelessness and Poverty Committee was ultimately adopted, delaying item 22 from being approved. Over the summer, the council adopted ordinance 41.18 which poses restrictions for camping around schools, parks and other sensitive sites. Item 22 would seek to apply these same restrictions on all city property, and would rely on the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for enforcement.
Peggy Lee Kennedy is a housing advocate speaking out about the massive supportive housing measure Proposition HHH. Proposition HHH is a $1.2 billion development effort to build 10,000 permanent housing units for the unhoused population of Los Angeles. HHH has become a sticking point for advocates who only see the homelessness issue becoming worse.
Kennedy, who volunteers with the Venice Justice Committee, petitions and fundraises on the Venice Boardwalk for supportive housing. Regarding Proposition HHH, she said “creating housing is a pretty basic idea. And it doesn't need to cost as much money as the city thinks... By purchasing buildings that are already intact, it won't take as much to refurbish for long term housing.”
The delay of the resolution comes at a time when council members are facing mounting public pressure to deal with the spread of encampments. HHH has been all but sidelined, with 361 units completed and a homeless population that has increased by over 13,000 since 2016. Shelters in outbreak status are forced to leave available beds vacant, and the city’s unhoused population now faces an eventuality where sleeping outside may catch them a charge.
