A homeless camp that grew into a sea of tents near Beverly Hills has finally broken up after disgruntled residents complained for weeks that the tent dwellers used and sold drugs at the site.
Outraged residents of the luxury enclave of Beverly Grove watched in horror as dozens of homeless people set up camp on San Vicente Boulevard last month.
They have described how the tent dwellers fight “all hours of the day” while also using and selling drugs in the encampment.
But now the highly controversial camp is being cleaned up and residents are moving into more permanent housing as part of Beverly Hills’ Inside Safe program, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said. KTLA 5.
It came after several homeless people at the camp claimed that police ordered them to move to San Vicente Boulevard — a claim strongly denied by the LA Sheriff’s Department.
Outraged residents of the luxury enclave of Beverly Grove watched in horror as dozens of homeless people set up camp on San Vicente Boulevard last month (pictured)
At the center of the intersection in Beverly Grove, near Beverly Hills, tents and tarps were set up by some of LA’s homeless population (pictured April 11). The site is now being cleaned by city officials
The tent dwellers are now getting converted homes as part of Bass’ Inside Safe Program, which takes homeless people off the streets into temporary or long-term housing in an effort to cope with the crisis.
“We put 26 people in motels,” Katy Yaroslavsky, LA city councilman who represents the district where the homeless camp was set up, told the news site.
“Connecting them to services, giving them storage for some of their stuff, making sure they have access to transportation to get to appointments and jobs,” will help them in the long run and they won’t return to set up another camp at a later date, Yaroslavsky said.
“We will also provide them with long-term support in the form of rent assistance and ensure they find a way to more permanent housing,” she added.
The mayor responded after residents of Beverly Grove complained about the homeless camp and its impact on the local community.
“They fight all day long,” said one resident KTLA last month. ‘They use drugs. They sell drugs. It’s gotten out of hand.
“We pay so much property taxes and do a lot of income taxes, it’s not fair for us to live like this.”
A woman who owns a beauty salon nearby said her customers were intimidated by the now-dismantled encampment.
“I have a nice clientele, but now my clientele is getting to the point where they just don’t feel comfortable,” she shared Eyewitness News last month.
The most recent survey, conducted by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, found that by 2022, approximately 69,000 people will be homeless in LA County and 41,000 in the city.
About half of the city’s homeless population struggles with drug or alcohol addiction, and about a third has serious mental illness. Homeless deaths average five a day.
Bass, who was elected in November after promising to tackle the city’s spiraling homeless crisis, said the Beverly Grove homeless camp is now being cleaned up and residents being moved to shelters.
Furious residents had described how the tent dwellers fight “all hours of the day” while also using and selling drugs in the encampment (pictured last month)
A homeless person sleeps on a patch of grass in a park on the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and crescent Dr.
The mayor last month recommended spending a record $1.3 billion next year to get people without shelter into shelter and treatment programs.
The funding that will be included in the mayor’s upcoming budget could be used in part to buy hotels or motels that can be converted into housing, while the city searches its inventory of properties for properties that could be used to shelter the homeless.
Governor Gavin Newsom has pledged to provide 500 temporary housing units to the city, while the Biden administration has sent the city and county more than $200 million for homeless programs, Bass said last month.
The city has been expanding spending on homeless programs for years — then-mayor Eric Garcetti signed a 2021 budget that includes nearly $1 billion in homeless spending — but the homeless population continues to grow.
Bass’s challenge is evident in just about every neighborhood: homeless people living in trash-strewn encampments or rusty RVs lining streets, under underpasses, and clustered around freeway exits.
Critics of her Inside Safe program argue that there aren’t enough resources available for homeless people once they move.
Bass, the first black woman to serve as mayor of LA and on President Joe Biden’s shortlist for vice president, defeated billionaire businessman Rick Caruso in the November election.
She anchored her campaign to get the homeless off the streets and into shelters, reverse rising crime rates, and develop housing that working-class families can afford.