Los Angeles officials are now blaming wealthy suburbs that ring downtown LA for “dumping” their homeless people within the city limits; claiming neighborhoods like Culver City are intentionally relocating the region’s exploding transient population.
“The 405 Freeway underpass along Venice Boulevard has become a flashpoint in the escalating homelessness crisis plaguing Southern California,” reports Fox News. “The road is a border between worlds. On the north side of the famed street is Los Angeles — and a sidewalk packed with sun-bleached tents, dirty sleeping bags, bikes in various states of disrepair and even a few surfboards belonging to residents of the underpass’ homeless population. On the south side is Culver City, a storied moviemaking hub and a peaceful suburban oasis.”
“Scenes like this are apparent across the Los Angeles region, where homeless camps and tent cities have cropped up all over the city of Los Angeles while just across the border in suburbs like Culver City, Manhattan Beach and Rancho Palos Verdes these encampments are nowhere to be seen. This disparity has infuriated Los Angeles city councilmembers and led to claims that L.A.’s neighbors are not just shirking their responsibility in tackling the region’s homeless crisis, but are actively pushing the homeless into L.A.’s city limits,” adds the article.
“They’re slacking, and some are not even doing that much,” Branimir Kvartuc, a spokesperson for L.A. City Councilman Joe Buscaino, told Fox News. “Some are taking the homeless out of their cities and moving them to the L.A. city side.”
Recent studies show the city’s homeless population increasing 16% in just one year.
“Despite an increase in spending on initiatives meant to get people off the streets, homelessness is up dramatically in Los Angeles and Los Angeles County, officials said Tuesday,” reports The Week.
“The annual count of the homeless found there are nearly 59,000 people living on the streets, in shelters, or in cars in Los Angeles County, up 12 percent from last year. More than 36,000 are in the city of Los Angeles, a 16 percent increase,” adds the website.
“At this point of unprecedented wealth in the county of Los Angeles, we are equally confronted with unprecedented poverty manifesting itself in the form of homelessness,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas told the Los Angeles Times.
“Overall, the service portion of the effort on mental health, substance use, the issue of housing, rent subsidies, those are important and we should stay the course,” he said. “Where we have to work much harder is in the area of affordable housing.”
Read the full report at Fox News.
'BREAKDOWN OF CIVILIZATION': LA Times SLAMS City Officials over Homeless Crisis, Rat Invasion, Garbage Piles
A columnist with the Los Angeles Times unloaded on city officials this week over the region’s escalating homeless crisis, ongoing invasion of rodents, and “sky-high” garbage piles taking over the streets.
“Los Angeles looks as if it’s digging out from a hurricane, with hordes on the streets, tents everywhere and armies of rodents on the march, inciting fears of disease.,” Steve Lopez wrote in his column, which appeared online Saturday night.
“I could give you a hundred breakdowns of what happened and what it all means, but it comes down to this: We’re in troubled waters on a ship without a captain, and though there might be a few pretenders on the bridge, nobody trusts them,” adds Lopez.
“We found out on Tuesday that although the city and county spent $600 million last year to chip away at the number of homeless people, the total increased by 16% to nearly 60,000,” adds the author.
“I naively invited readers last week to email me photos of trash heaps and encampments in their neighborhoods, and my inbox is about to explode,” he wrote. “I’ve got photos of half-clothed people passed out on pavement, sidewalks blocked by tents, bulky items, piles of poop and enough trash to fill the Grand Canyon.”
The current rat invasion sweeping across Los Angeles extended into an unlikely place last week: City Hall. Experts are now blaming the infestation on “homeless camps” circling the public property.
“When faced with complaints earlier this year from city workers about rats infesting L.A. City Hall, most city officials said little about whether the problem was connected to several homeless camps right outside,” reports the Los Angeles Times.
“But a newly uncovered report from a pest control company hired by the city has raised fresh questions about whether officials wrongly downplayed that possibility during discussions at City Council meetings,” adds the newspaper.
According to the pest control company hired to clear city hall, workers found “poor sanitary conditions” including human waste, food, and needles throughout the property.
“The homeless are using the grated areas above the pits as their bathroom and relieving themselves,” wrote David Costa, building construction and maintenance superintendent. “This is also attracting the rats. Custodial will need to do some hazmat cleaning of the grates and the pits. There are even hypodermic needles being tossed in the pits along with human waste and other garbage.”
The invasion comes after two LAPD officers were diagnosed with Typhus and other serious diseases related to the city’s rat population.
Read the full story at Fox News.
CALIFORNIA CHAOS: 53% Consider ‘FLEEING’ the State Due to Crime, Homeless, Taxes, MORE
A stunning new survey published this week shows just how difficult life’s become for the average California resident; revealing a shocking 53% of those asked said they are considering “fleeing” the region over crime, housing, and high taxes.
“Fifty-three percent of Californians surveyed are considering fleeing, representing a jump over the 49 percent polled a year ago,” writes CNBC.
“There’s no doubt that California’s economy, for all of its strengths when it comes to innovation and creating these industries that people want to be part of, is struggling with high costs,” said a leading economist. “Costs have gotten way ahead of incomes in California, and that’s making a lot of people think about whether it’s worth the hurdles.”
“California just doesn’t strike them as reasonable,” he added.
Read the full report here.
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