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Cerritos College • Norwalk, Calif.

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Cerritos College • Norwalk, Calif.

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It’s time to pass Anti-Camping laws

LA+Homelessness
Russ Allison Loar
A row of homeless people’s tents aligned along a sidewalk in Skid Row, Los Angeles.

The city of LA has a homelessness crisis and anti-camping laws are the way to stop this problem from getting any worse.

Los Angeles has approximately 69,144 homeless people living within the city, which is the second-highest homeless population for a city in the U.S.

Most of the people that are homeless in LA set up homeless encampments along the sidewalks of Downtown and that is just not safe for a variety of reasons.

Most of these places with homeless encampments are dirty and unsanitary, not just for the pedestrians using the sidewalks, but also for the homeless people themselves living in these encampments.

Not only is it unsanitary but it is not safe for pedestrians who want to use the sidewalk because of how unpredictable some homeless people may be.

These encampments are usually riddled with junk around the homeless people’s tents which can be a hazard to both the pedestrian walking and the homeless person.

The living conditions for these people aren’t good either and it is inhumane to let them continue to live like this.

Due to LA having such a high homeless population, all of the programs that the city provides feel like they aren’t effective.

Many cities across the United States have already jumped on this law and are beginning to enforce these laws with LA now being one of them.

The city of LA has already banned public camping in certain areas and they’re planning on banning more areas with one of LA’s shelter programs for the homeless ending soon.

If the city passes more of these laws and enforces them they could help curb the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles.

The passing of these anti-camping laws will also make the city safer, cleaner and will allow people to use the sidewalks again.

With the passing of these laws, a new solution would be required to house all the homeless people and that solution will be small housing units.

Tiny homes have been an idea that has been floated for years now as a solution to ease the homeless crisis for a while now.

These homes are already being built and used to house communities of homeless people in LA and LA County.

The city can allocate these funds to finance the tiny home projects with the taxpayer money that Angelinos already pay.

The city definitely has vacant land and lots to create these tiny home villages and it’s just about creating a multitude of them around the city for homeless people to access.

It is important we get these people a proper roof over their heads and get them back on their feet along with making the city’s sidewalks a safer and cleaner place for passer byers.

It’s time for people to start supporting this bill and call their local leaders to get this on the ballot to be voted on.

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About the Contributor
Joel Carpio, Managing Editor
Joel Carpio is the Managing, Co-Sports, & Co-Social Media Editor for Talon Marks, he enjoys playing sports, listening to music, and is an avid fan of the Dodgers, Lakers, Rams, Kings, and LAFC. He is planning on transferring to San Diego State University and earn his bachelors degree in Journalism. In the future he wants to be a sports broadcaster.
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  • A

    AnnOct 28, 2022 at 8:54 pm

    The root of this problem is some of these people want to be homeless, some have drug addiction and to top things off some have untreated mental disorders.

    Reply
  • D

    DavidOct 28, 2022 at 6:39 pm

    You. Are. A. Soulless. Idiot. The astronomical cost puf building thousands upon thousands of tiny homes makes this solution dead in the water. The thought that ALL homeless people need is a roof over their head is astoundingly ignorant. You don’t understand this crisis at all.

    Reply
    • J

      JackOct 30, 2022 at 7:15 pm

      Ok, David what is your solution since you think you know more about the homeless crisis. How much money do we taxpayers give to LA County for homelessness solutions that continue not to work? They are human beings like us and deserve a roof over their heads not just some random tent on the sidewalk with no proper security. This is definitely a much better idea that has already started to take effect in some regions of LA. I think the idiot here is you.

      Reply
    • M

      Marc LOct 31, 2022 at 6:21 am

      A significant portion of those living in these sidewalk encampments will not rehabilitate back into being productive members of society for a whole host of reasons: some have unaddressed mental health issues and can’t function in normal work environments. Some are drug addicts who although they would gladly accept free housing that doesn’t involve camping on the street simply won’t undertake the efforts necessary to become gainfully employed or if they do work it’s only a matter of time until their addiction or use will interfere and be the root cause of their job loss. Some are criminals who prey on the weaker people forced to live on the streets while other are happy to live outside normal societal bounds and have no desire to jump through the various hoops to get the assistance they’d need to return to the world of productive citizens and non-citizens. These are just some of the underlying problems contributing to the homelessness epidemic, which certainly won’t resolve itself.

      But we can’t just continue to allow anyone to stake out a piece of sidewalk, put up a tent and call it home. And due to actions by city officials and various police departments we can’t just arrest all the homeless living in one or more of these encampment merely to scoop up their belongings and dispose of them. Prior actions doing just that led to a federal lawsuit that was resolved with a consent
      decree prohibiting that.

      This problem is a major one with more complexity than most will admit, and at minimum it’s going to take millions, actually hundreds of millions, to get a comprehensive effective solution. But as I said before, it won’t fix itself, and all the naysayers to every idea, are going to have to realize that nothing will change without serious action, some of which necessarily will not be well received by those homeless people.

      Reply
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It’s time to pass Anti-Camping laws