L. A. camping law up for vote
Advocates for the homeless are fighting City Council proposal
Homeless advocates are f ighting city’s plan to allow the removal of camps.
The Los Angeles City Council is moving with unusual speed to a Wednesday vote on revisions to the city’s anti- camping law that would allow authorities to remove homeless camps anywhere in the city if they first offer shelter as an alternative to living on the street.
L. A. City Atty. Mike Feuer delivered the proposed amendments to the council Monday, less than a week after several council members introduced a motion requesting tweaks to the anticamping law, which had been sidelined on constitutional grounds.
Backers had said they expected to consider the motion Tuesday but instead scheduled a special meeting Wednesday to vote directly on the amendments, bypassing the usual committee process.
The proposed change in the law would effectively prohibit anyone from camping in public anywhere in the city if authorities offer shelter as an alternative.
When he first saw the language that Feuer’s office had crafted, Councilman Bob Blumenfield, who had requested the change, thought it was far too broad. He said he spoke to Feuer on Tuesday and planned to amend the citywide ban so that it would go into effect only when there is a system to track shelter beds and an agreement over what constitutes acceptable shelter.
“Those are very big hills to climb,” he said.
The addition of the words, “who has been offered shelter” in the amendments is intended to address a 2018 ruling of the U. S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in the case Martin vs. City of Boise, which found the arrest of homeless people to be unconstitutional if no alternate housing or shelter is available. The case withstood appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court.
A letter opposing the changes, signed by more than 40 homeless services providers and advocacy groups, was emailed to all 15 council members Tuesday. The haste with which the proposal has moved forward provoked outrage from advocates who phoned in to Tuesday’s regular council meeting, held remotely.
“What breaks my heart is seeing you pull out all the tactical and legislative stops to quickly pass something so cruel to our most vulnerable Angelenos, when we’ve never seen this kind of urgency for a motion that might actually help us,” said advocate Sophie Strauss.
Release of the proposed amendments led to a confrontation Monday night as members of KTown for All, a grass- roots group that advocates for the homeless, faced off with police officers outside Feuer’s home. Feuer, who brief ly addressed the group in his front yard, issued a statement saying he supports the right to protest and accepted the incident as something that “comes with the territory.”
The restoration of a citywide camping ban overshadowed other sections of the proposed amendments that would ban camping in specific locations. If adopted, they would allow the city to remove homeless camps within 500 feet of freeway underpasses and homeless shelters. In those areas, the offer of housing would not apply.
Those restrictions are aimed at enabling the city to respond to pressure from U. S. District Judge David O. Carter, who is presiding over a lawsuit alleging that the city and county have failed to alleviate homelessness. At Carter’s direction, city and county officials have committed to providing shelter for about 6,700 people estimated to be living under overpasses.
After two weeks of intense outreach, Tuesday was the deadline for people living under overpasses of the 101 Freeway in Blumenf ield’s district to move as part of an effort spearheaded by Carter. A spokesman for the councilman said 60 people had been moved to hotels or shelters.
The effort to update the ordinances appeared to be part of an effort to give the city a f irmer legal standing to undertake similar outreach and relocation projects in other locations in the future.
Earlier, notices on official city letterhead telling people they needed to move were posted. Yet it was unclear on whose authority the notices were issued, because Carter’s order to clear the areas near freeways was vacated in the spring.