After homelessness advocates pushed a Los Angeles City Council member to change how the city treats encampments in his district, the full City Council voted Tuesday to selectively stop enforcing a law that bans unhoused people from sleeping in certain areas.<\/p>\n
A controversial policy <\/p>\n
One of the city\u2019s most controversial enforcement laws on homelessness is found in section 41.18 of L.A.\u2019s municipal code. It allows local elected leaders to establish zones where unhoused people cannot sit, lie down, sleep or keep belongings on sidewalks or other public areas.<\/p>\n
What’s new? <\/p>\n
Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez \u2014 who represents a district including Hollywood, Silver Lake and Echo Park \u2014 recently introduced a motion to remove some of the 41.18 districts established by his predecessor, Mitch O’Farrell. <\/p>\n
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On Tuesday, the council voted 10-3 to allow some zones to be erased in Soto-Martinez\u2019s district. The zones include underpasses in Silver Lake, underpasses in Echo Park and 101 Freeway overpasses in Hollywood. <\/p>\n
Soto-Martinez said he believed today\u2019s measure was the first effort to have 41.18 zones removed rather than put in place.<\/p>\n
The debate <\/p>\n
Supporters of 41.18 have said the policy allows officials to keep encampments away from schools, parks and other areas deemed \u201csensitive\u201d by the city, enabling parents to keep their children away from encampments and helping to keep important pedestrian infrastructure clear. <\/p>\n
Critics have said the policy doesn\u2019t reliably keep encampments away from sensitive sites because people simply return after sweeps that don’t offer them housing. <\/p>\n
In Tuesday\u2019s meeting, Soto-Martinez said enforcement in some of these areas leads to unhoused people losing their belongings, becoming lost to outreach workers and sometimes getting arrested.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, that is a policy that does not work,\u201d Soto-Martinez said in Tuesday\u2019s meeting. \u201cIn our district, these zones were making it harder to do the things that do work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilmember Nithya Raman, now running for mayor, has also argued the policy is ineffective, saying it merely moves encampments to other blocks without getting people into housing. <\/p>\n