RVs getting cleared from large-scale homeless encampment near Gardena

A large-scale homeless encampment cleanup is underway Wednesday as roughly 60 RVs are getting removed from Redondo Beach and Compton boulevards, east of Gardena.

The area has been targeted by outreach workers for over a year, offering those living along the roadway alternative choices for housing and services.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna called the site a health hazard, with people living in life-threatening conditions.

"As you're going along this street, there is not running water, there's no running toilets and people need to use the restroom, so where is all that human waste going?"

"Not to mention whether it's drug paraphernalia that we find out here – this is not where you want people walking around. It's not a healthy environment," Luna said.

The cleanup is spearheaded by the county's Pathway Home initiative which launched in 2023 and is funded through voter-approved Measure A, the half-cent countywide sales tax earmarked for homeless services.

To date, Pathway Home has taken down 44 encampments, removed 775 RVs, permanently housed 265 people, and moved 1,319 people into interim housing, according to its website.

Officials said those who do not choose to participate in the offerings over the next couple of days will still be forced to leave, the RVs will still be towed away, and the streets and sidewalks will be cleared. It's an effort to return these streets and sidewalks back to the neighborhoods, they say.

"The goal of these Pathway Home encampment removals is to help transition people all at once, all at the same time, either into a motel or if we've done a master lease in an apartment building, to transition them as a community, given the fact that they have been living in a community," Supervisor Holly Mitchell said.