City of Angels Going To Seed

Tents and trash on the streets in trendy Venice area of LA

Liberal laws regarding squatters' rights have resulted in swelling on-street encampments in Los Angeles - many in up-scale neighborhoods and are a real test case for the area's showbiz residents.

Vandalism, tire-slashing, assaults, home robberies, are rampant as LA grapples with the homeless epidemic. Last year, the city budgeted $100m for affordable housing, addiction treatment, job placement, and health-care services - to no avail.

It has become very difficult for residents with liberal social beliefs to balance their political values with the transient issue they have to endure and the impact the street-people have on their property values.

Encampments of non-domiciled people have swelled in LA's trendy residential areas, where homes easily sell in the eight-digit figures and up!  Tents, set up on the streets (many equipped with mini-refrigerators, TVs, heaters, etc.) vie with pedestrian traffic.  These 'camps' even have names. According to police, the encampment squatters use a media app called 'Next Door' to monitor which residents are most vocal about their opposition to encampments and then target those residents for retribution.

To protect streets of squatters residents construct large planting boxes

Hollywood's vagrant problems started when laws and ballot measures were enacted during the early 2000s. For example, a 2006 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court required that law enforcement in LA could no longer enforce a ban on sleeping on sidewalks anywhere in the city.  While two CA ballot measures, that were overwhelming approved in 2016, decriminalized many felonies to address the State's over-populated prisons.

There seems to be no quick-fix for the issue, and like its sister city San Francisco, it is and will remain one of LA's most difficult problems. 

Best,
Jim Lavorato