A series of legal rulings and settlements have essentially prohibited the City of Los Angeles from moving homeless residents off of sidewalks and other public spaces. Limited resources and practical restraints make enforcement of the scant ordinances that are in place nearly impossible. As a result, over the last decade, L.A.’s homeless population has created settlements all across the city.  

 

Perhaps best known is a massive tent city in a part of the city known as “Skid Row.” This 50 block area is home to thousands of people experiencing homelessness. In Skid Row, and in similar encampments around L.A., people are living in tents, in boxes and under tarps on sidewalks, under bridges and in parks. They live in cars and campers permanently parked outside businesses, restaurants and homes. They keep their possessions, including furniture, shopping carts, bicycles and pets, with them in these make-shift dwellings. They pirate electricity off of street lights and use fires and kerosene heaters to stay warm.

 

Homelessness in Los Angeles has increased 75 percent over six years from about 32,000 to an estimated 55,000 due to rising cost of housing and limited space in shelters, low-cost hotels and tenements and affordable housing units. As a result, more of these tent cities are emerging across Los Angeles. A 2017 survey identified 222 encampments, including 50 settlements with 30 or more people living in them, in communities across L.A. from Koreatown to Bel-Air.

 

Drug use, violence, prostitution and arson are common in homeless encampments. The human waste, discarded food and other trash, including hypodermic needles and other drug paraphernalia, generated by the people living in tent cities attract rats and fleas and threaten public health and safety. In the fall of 2018 a typhus outbreak reached “epidemic” levels in parts of Los Angeles County including Pasadena.

 

The problem isn’t new for L.A. But the political will to solve it is. After decades of ignoring the issue and passing the buck, L.A. is finally taking action. Voters at the city and county levels approved investments in 2016 and 2017 to build more housing and fund outreach services. There are early signs of success, but progress is slow with a problem this large and persistent.

 

Denver does not need to repeat the mistakes of Los Angeles. With a proactive, thoughtful approach that seeks to balance the needs and rights of homeless residents with the expectations and rights of the rest of the community, Denver can do better.