A homeless camp that turned into a sea of tents near Beverly Hills has finally been dismantled after disgruntled residents complained for weeks that tent dwellers were using and selling drugs at the site.
Furious residents of the upscale Beverly Grove enclave watched in horror as dozens of homeless people moved onto San Vicente Boulevard last month.
They described how tent dwellers fight “all hours of the day” while using and selling drugs at the encampment.
But now the controversial camp is being cleaned up and its residents moving into more permanent housing as part of Beverly Hills’ Inside Safe program, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said. KTLA 5.
It came after several homeless people at the camp claimed cops told them to move to San Vicente Boulevard – a claim strongly denied by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department.
Furious residents of the upscale Beverly Grove enclave watched in horror as dozens of homeless people set up camp on San Vicente Boulevard last month (pictured)
In the center of the Beverly Grove Junction near Beverly Hills, tents and tarps have been set up by some of LA’s homeless people (pictured April 11). The site is currently being cleaned by the municipal authorities
Tent dwellers are now being moved into converted accommodation as part of Bass’ Inside Safe program, where homeless people are moved from the streets to temporary or long-term accommodation in a bid to cope with the crisis.
“We brought 26 people to motels,” Katy Yaroslavsky, a member of the Los Angeles City Council, who represents the district where the homeless camp was set up, told the news site.
“Connecting them to services, offering them storage space for some of their stuff, making sure they have access to transportation to get to appointments, jobs” will help them long term and will mean that they will not return to set up another camp at a later date, Yaroslavsky said.
“We will also provide them with long-term support in the form of housing assistance and ensure they have a path to more permanent accommodation,” she added.
The city’s mayor responded after residents of Beverly Grove complained about the homeless camp and the impact on the local community.
“They fight at all hours of the day,” said a resident KTLA last month. “They do drugs. They sell drugs. It’s out of control.
“We pay so much property tax and do a lot of income tax, it’s not fair for us to live like this.”
A woman who owns a nearby beauty salon said her customers were intimidated by the now dismantled encampment.
“I have a nice clientele, but now my clientele is getting to the point where they just don’t feel comfortable,” she said. Eyewitness News last month.
The most recent survey conducted by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority found that approximately 69,000 people were homeless in LA County and 41,000 in the city in 2022.
About half of the city’s homeless population struggles with drug or alcohol addiction, and about a third suffer from serious mental illnesses. Homeless people die on average five a day.
Bass, who was elected in November after promising to tackle the city’s out-of-control homelessness crisis, said the Beverly Grove homeless camp was being cleared and residents were being moved in shelters.
Furious residents had described how tent dwellers fought ‘all hours of the day’ while using and selling drugs at the encampment (pictured last month)
A homeless man is seen napping on a patch of grass in a park on the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and Crescent Dr.
The mayor last month recommended spending what she called a record $1.3 billion next year to get homeless people into shelter and treatment programs.
Funding to be included in the mayor’s next budget could be used in part to buy hotels or motels that would be converted into housing, while the city combs through its inventory of properties for those that could be used to house sans -shelter.
Governor Gavin Newsom has promised to deliver 500 temporary housing units to the city, while the Biden administration has sent the city and county more than $200 million for homeless programs, Bass said last month. .
The city increased spending on homeless programs for years — then-Mayor Eric Garcetti signed a budget in 2021 with nearly $1 billion in homeless spending — but the homeless population continued to increase.
Bass’s challenge is visible in nearly every neighborhood: homeless people living in trash-strewn camps or rusting motor homes along streets, under underpasses, and clustered around freeway exits.
Critics of its Inside Safe program argue that there are not enough resources available to homeless people once they are rehoused.
Bass, the first black woman to serve as mayor of Los Angeles who was on President Joe Biden’s shortlist for vice president, defeated billionaire businessman Rick Caruso in the November election.
She anchored her campaign to get homeless people off the streets and into shelters, reverse soaring crime rates and develop affordable housing for working-class families.
