CommentsSKID ROW- On Wednesday, the Los Angeles City Council passed a revised ordinance which completely dissed all homeless folks in LA and should embarrass any and all Angelenos. They did it with one 13-1 vote. As a home-grown Angeleno, this is the lowest point I’ve personally experienced since the “Rodney King Riots” in 1992.
The issue? Homelessness is rising at an alarming rate in Los Angeles. With a glaring shortage of low-income housing and literally no low-income housing units under construction anywhere in the city, homeless people are piling up on our city’s sidewalks. That also means that tents, encampments, personal property and even bulky items have been expanding over more and more sidewalk areas, making homelessness that much more unmanageable.
With multiple settlement agreements (Jones v. City of LA) (Lavan Injunction) already on the books, homeless folks are allowed to pitch tents and sleep on the sidewalks from 9pm until 6am. Without anywhere to go and/or store their belongings in the daytime, houseless people living on the streets simply leave their tents up 24/7.
The Los Angeles Police Department is either inconsistent or confused about what to do. If they cite homeless sidewalk dwellers at a feverish pace (think: Safer Cities Initiative), the police will be seen as bad guys who lack compassion as they criminalize the homeless. On the other hand, if they look the other way, sanitation and public safety issues endanger more people than just homeless persons.
With the City Attorney’s office combing through every relative legal document, and after months and months of weighing all options, they presented a unique option that no one saw coming. It’s called ordinance 56.11, a law already on the books that the City Attorney’s office has simply decided to revise.
As previously stated, City Council voted to approve it, although the vote was not unanimous. This happened after the revised version of the old ordinance went through not one but two committees – the Public Works and Gang Reduction committee and the Homelessness and Poverty committee. All the “i’s” were dotted and all the “t’s” were crossed.
Here’s the problem:
In deciding that homeless folks can no longer store/possess their personal property on the sidewalk in the daytime, it has been determined by the City that the only possessions a homeless person can possess must fit into a “60-gallon container with the lid closed.”
In other words, a trash can…say what? That’s right, the City of Los Angeles has voted and approved a revised ordinance which orders homeless persons to store their good belongings in a large trash can. Wow!
As a Skid Row resident, I can’t even begin to find the words to describe how demoralizing and inhumane this idea is!
City Councilmember Gil Cedillo (the lone dissenting vote) said during the council meeting at City Hall, “We were on one path which was a more respectful path focusing on housing, services and storage and now we are on a totally different path altogether.”
Less than two months ago, the City of Los Angeles unveiled its “comprehensive homeless strategy” --a plan that combines resources with the County of Los Angeles. The County’s separate release of their own plan is just over 100 pages. The City’s plan is well over 200 pages.
What’s relative to this topic is the emphasis the City put on their strategic priority strategy to “decriminalize” homelessness.
Now, less than two months later, they’ve suddenly changed their course of action -- a complete 180.
The negative effect is deeply concerning. For the ordinance language to instruct homeless people to store their property in trash cans is not only embarrassing for human beings struggling to survive, but the collective damage caused to their subliminal mental psyches cannot (and will not) be measured nor documented.
How can the City of Los Angeles pat itself on the back as if they did something good when the negative long-term impact will cause more trauma to an already wounded and vulnerable population – a population the City is already struggling to help?
As a formerly homeless man who still lives in Skid Row, I say, “How dare the City of Los Angeles order me to put my belongings in a trash can? Does that mean the City thinks my personal property is worthless? Is my life as a Skid Row resident also worthless? How do I know this isn’t a trick and as soon as I ‘voluntarily’ put everything I own in a trash can, it won’t ‘accidentally’ be mixed-up with real trash and discarded into a dumpster?”
As someone who often wears suits and ties, is the City of Los Angeles now telling me that I must store my suits and ties in a trash can? Are they out of their minds?
This is an insult and very well may be the most disrespectful ordinance in the history of the City of Los Angeles and possibly all of America. (Right after slavery laws!)
Imagine the Summer Olympics with millions of tourists from all over the world here to cheer on their countries’ athletes. How will the City of Los Angeles answer the most-asked question: Why do all the homeless people here travel with trash cans filled with all of their personal belongings?
I don’t even want to know the City’s answer. It will probably be even more disrespectful and embarrassing than me having to pull my suit, tie and dress shoes out of a trash can for a meeting at City Hall. How many millions will the City spend – or, rather, waste – to build brand new trash cans? Surely they’re not gonna just rinse out used ones…right?
The human rights violations continue to mount. Where is the United Nations when you need it?
(General Jeff is a homelessness activist and leader in Downtown Los Angeles.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
Today, I’m Appalled to be an Angeleno
