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THE UNHOUSED - The City of Los Angeles spends enormous amounts of money to help and house people who are unhoused. Yet we continue to hear that people who are unhoused are just being “moved around” during city sweeps and cleanups, and not actually housed. We also hear that sweeps and cleanups are used in some areas to force people who are unhoused to move to other areas, without helping or housing them.
I was born and raised in Venice, and my parents still live there. I am in Venice daily and I follow what goes on in the community and have for decades. Over the past two years, Councilwoman Traci Park has focused a lot of city resources in clearing the unhoused from Venice. Hundreds of people who are unhoused, and dozens of RVs, cars and vans used as dwellings have disappeared from Venice in the city’s weekly, ongoing sweeps and cleanup operations.
I now live in Westchester, so I keep up with what is happening here also. During the past two years here in Westchester and Playa Del Rey, I have observed unhoused people showing up in our residential areas, Downtown Westchester area, in our parks, and on the beach in PDR on nearly a daily basis, looking disoriented and traumatized. Many pass out on the sidewalks and spend the day there, unconscious or asleep and baking in the sun, with only a bottle of water next to them, like they have been dumped out of a vehicle and told goodbye and good luck. Residents report seeing people who are unhoused being dropped off, six or seven at a time, in locations near Lincoln and Manchester. We have come to expect this on the days of the cleanups in Venice. Over the past two years, we have also seen our RV count increase dramatically, and many of these RVs are parked on traffic arteries to and from LAX, and many are parked east of LAX in Westchester, in the noise and pollution.
While we have been told homelessness is down in the city, that has not been our experience here in Westchester and Playa Del Rey. We have witnessed so much human suffering in our communities, and we have asked Councilwoman Park for help, yet the homelessness numbers continue to increase in our area. The cleanups continue in Venice, and we continue to see people who are unhoused arriving here, looking exhausted and depleted.
We have asked Councilwoman Park for information regarding homeless counts by community, and we have been told it is not available. As it turns out, the information is available on this LAHSA dashboard.
This dashboard has LAHSA point in time count information for 2023 and for 2024 by Service Plan Area, by County Supervisorial District, by Unincorporated Area, by City in LA County, within the City of LA by Council District, and within the City of LA by Neighborhood Council District.
I spent a day diving into the data to see what is happening in my Council District, CD 11, and to get an idea as to whether the unhoused are just being moved around, or are they being housed and helped? I was most interested in comparing the RV counts and the unsheltered homeless counts because I have seen a large increase in the RV count and unsheltered homeless count in Westchester.
Here’s what I found. At the time of the LAHSA PIT count in 2023, there were 447 RVs used as dwellings and 460 unsheltered homeless in CD 11. In 2024, there were 351 RVs used as dwellings, and 546 unsheltered homeless. The RV count in CD 11 decreased by nearly 100 RVs from 2023 to 2024 and the unsheltered homeless increased from 460 to 546 in this time.
One would expect that the changes in the numbers would be fairly uniform by Neighborhood Council area in CD 11. That is not what I found. Rather, I found staggering inconsistencies.
RV Count Comparisons by Neighborhood Council District in CD 11
Let’s start with Venice. The LAHSA numbers show that the RV count in Venice in 2023 was 174, and in 2024 it was 56. That is a decrease of nearly 120 RVs, which is astonishing in general, and particularly given that the decrease in the entire district during that time period was under 100 RVs.
A few other CD 11 communities in addition to Venice saw decreases in RVs from 2023 to 2024, and those include Mar Vista, Del Rey, West LA/Sawtelle, and Brentwood. Mar Vista had the most significant decrease among those communities, next to Venice, with a decrease from 44 to 23 RVs.
Turning to Westchester/Playa, the RV count went from 90 RVs in 2023 to 117 RVs in 2024. The Westchester, Playa Del Rey, and Playa Vista numbers are combined because they are in the same Neighborhood Council District. Dozens of RVs were removed from the Wetlands in Playa Del Rey in a massive cleanup operation in the summer of 2023, and the RVs on Pershing Avenue in that community were removed, for a total of 30 to 40 RVs. Given the RV operations in Playa Del Rey, we would have expected a decrease in RV numbers in Westchester/Playa. Instead, we saw an increase in Westchester/Playa, from 90 RVs in 2023 to 117 RVs in 2024.
The other two CD 11 communities that experienced increases in addition to Westchester/Playa were the Palisades (increased from 6 RVs in 2023 to 42 RVs in 2024) and Palms (increased from 18 RVs in 2023 to 19 RVs in 2024).
Unsheltered Persons not in a Dwelling Count Comparisons by Neighborhood Council District in CD 11
There were some surprising and anomalous differences in these numbers as well.
In 2023, there were 460 unsheltered homeless in CD 11, and in 2024 there were 546. One would expect that there would be a fairly even increase across CD 11 communities from 2023 to 2024. This was not the case.
The LAHSA numbers show that the count of total unsheltered homeless in Venice in 2023 was 183 people, and in 2024 the count was 106 people--a huge decrease. It is worth noting that just weeks prior to the 2023 LAHSA homeless count, close to 200 people who were unhoused were cleared from Venice as part of massive Inside Safe operations.
Mar Vista had a decrease from 35 in 2023 to 20 in 2024, Brentwood had a decrease from 11 to six, and Palms had a decrease from 31 to 26.
In Westchester, the total number of unsheltered homeless in 2023 was 90 people. A year later in 2024, it was 227 people. This is more than a 200% increase.
Del Rey, West LA/Sawtelle, and the Palisades all had increases, but nowhere near as significant as that in Westchester/Playa. The increase in Del Rey was from 61 in 2023 to 85 in 2025. The increase in West LA/Sawtelle was from 69 in 2023 to 84 in 2024. The increase in the Palisades was from 11 in 2023 to 14 in 2024.
What are we to make of these numbers?
The greatest across-the-board decreases in the counts of people who are unhoused were in Venice, where there have been multiple ongoing, multi-agency cleanups on a weekly basis. I see these cleanups as they happen, and my parents see them. These cleanups have become a bit of a spectacle because, well, they are a spectacle. They are recorded by videographers weekly and posted online. For two years, these cleanups and sweeps have been ongoing in Venice.
The LAHSA numbers showing huge reductions in unhoused and vehicle dwellers in Venice are consistent with my observations. My parents and I have observed that hundreds of people who are unhoused, and dozens of RVs, cars and vans used as dwellings, have disappeared from Venice over the past two years in these weekly, ongoing sweeps and cleanup operations.
The greatest across-the-board increases in unhoused and RVs in CD 11 were in Westchester/Playa. The increase in Westchester/Playa is consistent with my and other community member observations of a steady stream of incoming homeless. Westchester/Playa now has more than twice as many unsheltered homeless as Venice, and more than twice as many RVs used as dwellings.
The LAHSA data seems to give validity to the appears that stories that the unhoused and RVs are just being “moved around,” and we see the resulting human suffering on our streets in Westchester/Playa.
These LAHSA numbers raise the question as to whether Councilwoman Park is systematically clearing Venice of people who are unhoused, and if they are they being directed to Westchester/Playa or pushed there. Clearly, these numbers are more than coincidence. The term “statistically significant” would be an understatement.
This has been going on for two years, since Councilwoman Park took office. At what point does Councilwoman Park decide use city resources more equitably to help the unhoused, rather than pushing them to Westchester/Playa? Do these people have to wait for help until every single unhoused person and vehicle dwelling is gone from Venice?
Many are beginning to wonder if it is the Councilwoman’s plan is to push the unhoused to Westchester/Playa, and then house people of low income and the unhoused in Westchester/Playa and put safe parking for RVs in Westchester/Playa as well? She does oppose nearly all, if not all, plans for homeless housing and low-income housing in Venice, and these cleanups in Venice just keep going, so of course people wonder if this is the plan. Since Councilwoman Park has housed a CIRCLE team (which she moved from Venice) to Westchester Park, and also a LAHSA team in Westchester Park, perhaps the plan is to bring services to Westchester/Playa, and then bring the unhoused so they can receive services here?
Creating a containment zone of sorts in Westchester/Playa for people who are unhoused and of low income would violate both the intent of the settlement agreement in the Alliance v. City of Los Angeles and the requirement to “Affirmatively Further Fair Housing.”
Councilwoman Park, you represent the entire district, and not just Venice, and your constituents include people who are unhoused and of low income. Homelessness response should be fair and equitable in all neighborhoods in CD 11, and not just those that have political and financial clout, and people who are homeless should be helped and not just moved around.
(Rosa Padilla is a retired trial attorney and lifelong Los Angeles resident who has been a vocal advocate for her Westchester community, challenging city upzoning plans that threaten local neighborhoods with overdevelopment and environmental risks.)
