Tension boil at LA City Council meeting over controversial homeless encampment ban
Police had to remove protesters constantly disrupting Friday's Los Angeles City Council meeting as council members overwhelmingly approved a controversial ban on homeless encampments.
The council's vote of 10 to 1 approving a ban on homeless encampments within 500 feet of schools and daycare centers, which is part of the city's new law regulating homeless encampments, angered many advocates.
"Everyone knows this isn't about fixing homelessness," said one resident during the meeting. "It's about aesthetics. And it's at the expense of real people."
However, others disagreed including a father who not only works at a junior high school but whose first-grade daughter goes to Dr. Sammy Lee Medical and Health Science Magnet School which became a hotspot for homeless encampments.
"Every day I have the incredible joy of walking my child to school because she goes to the school next door to me," said Jeffrey Stemnock. "After I drop her off, I do what I call the 'heartbreak patrol."
With his plant manager, Stemnock walks the perimeter of his campus looking for drug paraphernalia, live exposed electrical wires and extension cords plugged into the school's lights.
"We also see things like human feces and call for assistance for people that need it," he said.
However, some neighbors who live near the encampment fear that the city's policy is not the right solution.
"People are being forced from location to location," said neighbor Taylor Falcon. "I get it. We have few kids still in the neighborhood and they've told me horror stories of things that are happening at their school playground in relation to the homeless population. But I think until we can solve the problem holistically I don't think its fair to keep pushing them from place to place and criminalizing them."
For now, it appears the majority of the council agrees the encampments near schools must be moved.
"You can protest all you want but it doesn't change the truth," said council member Mitch O'Farrell. "The truth is the city is engaged in housing people — it is our mission, our primary focus. While we have enforcement tools, that we may use if necessary we haven't had to use that enforcement tool but you better believe we do need it."
"You know, as shelter is being made available to people, as housing is being made available — we have to at least as a society say there are some places and some types of encampments we just cannot accept," said council member Paul Krekorian.
Since the vote was not unanimous, the council will have to vote once again at the end of the month.