Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino is upping the ante in the debate over where and how to restrict homeless encampments, calling on his colleagues to prohibit tents from going up within 500 feet of any public school in the city.
Buscaino said through a spokesman that he wants the council to use its new anti-camping ordinance to make sidewalks around more than 1,000 campuses “no camping zones.”
The ordinance, which goes into effect next month, requires the council to vote to authorize enforcement in certain locations, including schools.
Buscaino, who is running for mayor, is scheduled to announce his proposal at a charter school in Hollywood on Monday, which is also the first day of school for hundreds of thousands of children attending the Los Angeles Unified School District, many of whom will be in classrooms for the first time in a year and a half.
“During the pandemic, encampments formed and grew around school campuses like they did in Venice Beach,” Buscaino said in a statement. “We must address public safety issues — especially simple access to sidewalks.”
Buscaino’s proposal was swiftly denounced by homeless advocates, who said it wrongly insinuates that people living on the streets are criminals who pose a threat to children and families. Theo Henderson, host and creator of the podcast “We the Unhoused,” called the proposal “evil, pure and simple.”
“What it ignores is that there are unhoused families that are going into these schools, families that love their kids just as much as the housed community,” he said.
School board member Kelly Gonez also criticized Buscaino’s effort, calling it “incredibly disappointing.”
“Permanent housing is the solution to homelessness, and this action gets us no closer to solving the current humanitarian crisis,” she wrote on Twitter.
The report could help Councilman Mike Bonin quell an uproar in parts of his district, who had come out against the idea of homeless facilities at those locations.
Buscaino scheduled his news conference in a section of Hollywood represented by Councilman Mitch O’Farrell. Dan Halden, an O’Farrell spokesman, said his boss will not attend Buscaino’s news conference and had not been aware of it until Buscaino issued his advisory.
“Our team’s focus, both in this area of Hollywood and throughout the 13th District, will continue to be on outreaching to people experiencing homelessness and effectively connecting them to housing and resources,” he said.
Buscaino’s proposal is part of a lengthy tug of war at City Hall over how far, and how fast, to enforce the city’s anti-camping law.
Homeless advocates have accused city leaders of criminalizing poverty, by setting up a new process that could cause people living on the streets to receive citations for camping in certain locations. But business groups and some neighborhood organizations have voiced support for new restrictions, saying the city needs to restore access to its public spaces.
The ordinance, which received a final vote last month, prohibits people from sitting, sleeping, lying or storing property on sidewalks that are within 500 feet of “sensitive uses,” such as parks, libraries, schools and daycare centers. But it also places limits on the city’s ability to enforce those restrictions.
Under the ordinance, enforcement cannot take place near schools and other public facilities unless the council has voted to give the go-ahead. Signs would need to be installed in a particular location and remain up for 14 days before enforcement could begin.
Enforcement also would be accompanied by the arrival of “street engagement” teams who would spend up to four months offering shelter and other services to those living outside in a targeted area, according to a city report issued last month.
Buscaino has already proposed that the ordinance be used to prohibit encampments around homeless shelters in his district, which stretches from Watts to San Pedro. But other council members have taken steps to limit enforcement even more.
The council’s homelessness committee voted 3 to 1 on Thursday to recommend that outreach and enforcement around parks, schools and other sensitive areas be limited to 15 locations between September and February. Such a strategy would effectively give each of the council’s 15 members the ability to target one location during that timeframe.
Council members Mark Ridley-Thomas, Nithya Raman and Kevin de León voted in favor of that strategy, which still needs approval from the full council.
In a rare extended interview on homelessness, Gov. Gavin Newsom applauded the removal of homeless camps from Echo Park Lake and Venice Beach in Los Angeles, staking out a position that reflects a change in the political dialogue about homelessness in California.
Ridley-Thomas, who is weighing his own run for mayor, argued in favor of the more limited approach, saying the city should start off with a pilot program and then assess next year whether its street engagement teams are working effectively to move people indoors.
“The objective is to get this right, and then be able to build on our successes,” he said in a statement. “A pilot phase would ensure that operations and resources are being deployed effectively with the objective of yielding the best results for housed and unhoused alike.”
Buscaino cast the lone opposing vote, arguing that the process would be too slow and bureaucratic. The proposal for more limited enforcement next heads to the council’s energy and environment committee, which is headed by O’Farrell.
