City leaders discuss tactics to find housing for residents in growing encampment near Beverly Center
Los Angeles leaders are still searching for ways to find housing for the residents of a growing homeless encampment near the Beverly Center.
Residents and workers in the area have grown concerned about the encampment, especially after its rapid expansion.
"It is heartbreaking because I sympathize with the people who are living out here like this," said Kathy, who works in the area and requested we do not use her last name.
She also offered a sober assessment of the homelessness crisis.
"To know that our children are walking down this street — looking at this," she said. "This is the country they're growing up in. They have to be thinking, 'Is this what I'm going through? Am I going to be homeless?' "
The tents are in Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky's district. Last week, Mayor Karen Bass said that the pair have been working together to find housing for the unhoused.
"The main pinch point right now for me and my team — and the mayor's team — is a lack of access to beds," said Yaroslavsky. "We simply don't have interim beds on the west side and certainly not in Council District 5. So, as we work to bring those beds online quickly we're looking at more quick-to-scale options like motels."
Yaroslavsky also questioned the effectiveness of the city's anti-camping ordinance, known as 4118.
"Instead of seeing larger encampments near freeway underpasses or alleyways, or whatever, you saw one or two tents all over the place because people were scattering due to 4118," she said. "And so, it really does have to be paired with credible offers of housing."
Meanwhile, state legislators are questioning the approach to funding outreach on the homeless crisis. A bipartisan effort is underway to audit how billions are being spent on housing and treatment.
"For the first time in the history of California we've put $15 billion at a time," said State Senator Dave Cortese, a Democrat that represents Santa Clara. "Is it just that the money is slow? Are decisions being made that the money go somewhere else? There's way more questions that most legislators have right now."
