Los Angeles City Council voted 14-0 Tuesday to declare a shelter crisis, an effort aimed to provide easier temporary housing for the city's homeless in public buildings.
"Today the council acted on several initiatives that lead towards a comprehensive strategy to address homelessness in Los Angeles, including housing, services, enforcement, clean streets and standards befitting a modern city," said Councilman Joe Buscaino. "Our objective is to achieve a balance between the health and safety of our community and the rights and needs of the homeless. We can all agree that no one should have to live next to a homeless encampment or in a homeless encampment."
The City Council also considered lifting criminal penalties from a law that prohibits the homeless from storing personal property on sidewalks and other public areas -- a recommendation advocates have been urging for, months after Mayor Garcetti announced a "state of emergency" on homelessness in Los Angeles.
The law, known as 56.11, allows the city to give those who are penalized and fined a 24-hour notice before homeless encampments would need to be taken down or personal items moved to a storage facility.
"We hope that you will take action that day to decriminalize homelessness, decriminalize the possession of property in public areas," said Becky Dennison of the Los Angeles Community Action Network, to the City Council on Friday.
The recommendation, supported by the Homelessness and Poverty Committee, faces resistance from residents groups and some city council members.
Mark Ryavec of the Venice Stakeholders Association said criminal penalties are needed to enforce the law.
News
Top news of the day
"The misdemeanor penalty must remain or campers will not comply with orders of city workers to remove their belongings to effectuate clean-ups," he said in an email.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development recently revised their funding criteria to penalize grant applications from municipalities that criminalize homelessness, which can hurt LA's chance of receiving federal funding, officials said.
LACAN and other advocate groups are urging Garcetti to set aside $100 million per year for permanent housing for the homeless and low-income population and to stop spending $87 million per year on law enforcement programs affecting the homeless.
In September Garcetti declared a "state of emergency" on homelessness in the city and proposed a $100 million fund for resources -- a fund that Dennison said still needs to be identified.
