NWSP Council Pushes to Ban Homeless People from 11 Sites
Councilman Joe Buscaino has already tried to ban homeless people from nearly 200 sites in Council District 15, more than any other district in the city, but Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council wants him to add 11 more to the list.
At the June 13 meeting, the neighborhood council voted 10-4 to ask that Buscaino try to ban homeless people from camping at several parks and other educational areas for children, all located in northwest San Pedro. Newly re-elected board president Ray Regalado, as well as board members Craig Goldfarb, Cynthia Gonyea and Aleksander Norman all voted against it.
The sites include Gaffey Street Park, Field of Dreams park, San Pedro Community Gardens, Channel Skate Park, San Pedro Math Science Technology Center, Kids Kingdom Nursery, San Pedro Adult Learning Center, Knoll Hill Little League, San Pedro Athletic Complex, and San Pedro Girls Softball Association. Leland Park is on Buscaino’s list, but the neighborhood council’s motion said that an incorrect address was used and provided the correct one.
Buscaino has tried to ban camping under the recently amended section 41.18 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code. The city council modified it in July 2021 to allow city council members to ban sitting, lying or storing property on public property. However, first, these locations must be approved by the city council, then outreach must be done offering any people housing. Then a cleanup must be done, where city employees throw most of the homeless people’s stuff away, after which a sign will be posted preventing homeless people from camping within either 500 or 1,000 feet.
“We have seen huge increases in homeless traffic numbers in the Northwest boundaries,” states the neighborhood council’s letter requesting the additional sites. However, the letter did not provide a source for this, or any statistics.
In addition, the letter states there has been an increase in fires from “unhoused encampments and trouble areas” and lists San Pedro Community Gardens and Channel Skate Park as examples.
Melanie Labrecque, chair of the neighborhood council’s public safety committee, said her committee passed this letter because initially Buscaino had covered other parts of San Pedro, excluding northwest. However, Buscaino recently added more sites from northwest San Pedro, but these are areas he did not include.
“There were some parts of our area that were left out that needed to be added,” Labrecque said.
Labrecque said that northwest San Pedro needs these signs for places where children go.
“Children’s safety is the most important, to make sure that our kids are protected and that
the homeless are not sleeping where our children play,” Labrecque said.
This came only a few weeks after the city council voted 13-2 to have the city attorney draft a motion to ban camping within 500 feet of all schools in the city, which happened on May 31. Then, on June 3, Buscaino introduced a motion to ban camping within 500 feet of all city libraries.
Newly re-elected board president Ray Regalado said that if all these sites were approved, it would be a lot of work to enforce all of them.
“The thing that concerns me is, do we have adequate shelters, and places for the people who are on the street?” Regalado said. “Because essentially, if you enforce all these and we don’t have the necessary shelter, will we not be just getting people moved to some other location?”
Board member Dan Dixon said that the city never enforces anything equally, as it doesn’t have the manpower or the inclination to do so.
“But I do think it’s important to get places that we are concerned about their viability, for children and families and commerce, they need to be on a list that can protect them as necessary,” Dixon said.
Board member Craig Goldfarb said that homeless people could simply move a few hundred feet away when asked.
“We’re not solving the problem,” Goldfarb said. “We’re just moving the problem. And it doesn’t seem to be effective. They closed down the Gulch [Road location], half those people have moved to northwest. They’re not at the skatepark, they’ll be up on the hill on Mira Flores.”
Laurie Jacobs, the board’s homelessness liaison and former vice president, said that 41.18 gives police the ability to ask people to move when there is housing available, but the shelters are all full now. She pointed out that when the police cleared out the homeless encampment on Gulch Road, only four people out of 17 accepted housing, and the rest dispersed. The city doesn’t know where they went.
“I also understand the thought process here,” Jacobs said. “That if they’re doing this in central San Pedro and coastal San Pedro, those people are just moving to northwest. So now northwest says ‘well, we’re going to move them somewhere else.’ It’s very frustrating.”
Jacobs said that CD15 has designated more areas than any other council district.
“Law enforcement, dealing with people who specifically have possible substance abuse and mental health issues, they see somebody with a gun, that’s not going to work,” Jacobs said. “We need mental health units out there in a lot of cases, and that’s more towards the solutions that we need to be looking at.”
Board member Gwen Henry pointed out that 41.18 signage will help local police to act on RVs that are left at Field of Dreams for too long, as well as other vehicles or encampments there. She also said that fires in Peck Park have been increasing over the past few weeks.
“Because it’s a canyon park, there’s a lot of sheltered areas,” Henry said. “There’s a lot of fuel to ignite. I think that having the signs up allows them to take care of something like a fire hazard, or it really is too close to a school.”
Capt. Brent McGuyre of the Los Angeles Police Department Harbor Division did not respond to a request for comment on this story.