LA City Council repeals homeless camping ban in Hollywood, 11 other neighborhoods

The Los Angeles City Council has voted to repeal camping bans in a dozen neighborhoods including Hollywood, Echo Park and Silver Lake at the request of a council member, who argued the ban was ineffective at solving the city's homeless problem.

The council rescinded the city's discretionary no-camping zones Tuesday in a 10-3 vote, with city council members Imelda Padilla, Traci Park and Monica Rodriguez dissenting, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“Displacing our neighbors from block to block, or in many cases from district to district, doesn’t help them find housing,” Council member Hugo Soto-Martínez said in his request to colleagues to remove the camping ban. “In most cases, it makes it much harder for us to help them because they lose their belongings, they get fined, and many times they are arrested. To me, that is a policy that does not work.”

The city’s anti-encampment law prohibits them near schools and day-care centers, but the council can also establish discretionary no-camping zones near libraries, senior centers, freeway overpasses and other “sensitive use” areas.

Park told Soto-Martinez that her district, which includes the affluent area of Westlake, has used anti-camping zones to keep former encampments from coming back.

“We do outreach. We offer beds and services, and we get people off the streets," Park said. "But after we do that work, we expect that after all that time and money and resources went into an operation, that the area remains safe and clean and accessible."

Council member Bob Blumenfield voted to repeal the measure, stating that although he believed it to be an effective tool against homelessness, he trusted Soto-Martínez’s discretion to remove the homeless within his own district.

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