Homeless camps in the Hollywood village of Beverly Hills have taken a turn for the worse, as a local business owner says naked people are now scaring off customers.
In recent days, a naked woman was seen simply lying on a leftover bench amidst the rubble in one of the encampments, scaring a business owner who would only call herself Debra.
She says the encampment hurt her hair care business and made her afraid to work past 6 p.m. along San Vicente Boulevard, just south of the Beverly Center.
“I have a nice clientele, but now my clientele is getting to the point where they just don’t feel comfortable,” said Debra, who has lived in the area for 20 years.
She begs city officials to take action to prevent her from losing any more cases.
Homeless camps in Beverly Hills’ Hollywood stamping grounds have taken a turn for the worse, as a local business owner says naked people are now scaring off customers
“I saw the couch out there one day and I thought, ‘Oh my God,'” she shared ABC7. “The next day I came back and saw she was all on the couch and she’s just naked. She was crying. I felt sorry for her, you know?’
“I wanted to give her something to cover up, but I felt like if I do the little things, everyone will come to me and ask for help.”
“My home is within walking distance of these encampments,” Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky, whose district includes Debra’s business, said in a statement.
“I walk or drive past this neighborhood with my three kids almost every day. What these small businesses and the surrounding communities have had to endure is unacceptable.”
Debra has said she hasn’t been able to get the city or any of its officials to help.
“My staff and I have done everything we can to manage the situation as we work hard to find housing and services,” Yaroslavsky added.
The number of homeless people in Los Angeles is growing, meaning vagrant camps are encroaching on the sacred precincts.
Santa Monica Boulevard forms the dividing line between the Hills — where the median home price is $3.5 million — and nearby Beverly Grove, where clumps of tents have sprung up amid the department stores and leafy parks.
A naked woman was just spotted on a leftover bench among the rubble in one of the encampments in recent days, scaring a business owner who would only call herself Debra (pictured)
She says the encampment hurt her hair care business and made her afraid to work past 6 p.m. along San Vicente Boulevard, just south of the Beverly Center
Debra has been begging city officials to take action to prevent her from losing any more cases
The number of homeless people in Los Angeles is growing, meaning vagrant camps are encroaching on the sacred precincts
Photos taken on Tuesday show tarpaulins, shopping carts, mattresses and loose bedding next to busy intersections and on the sidewalks of the affluent suburb.
The scenes were captured on San Vicente Blvd, near the luxury shopping mall Beverly Center, where celebrities like Victoria Beckham, Paris Hilton and Hailey Bieber all like to shop.
An estimated 40,000 people are homeless in the city of Los Angeles, which has a population of nearly 4 million.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority estimated that about 70,000 people will be homeless in Los Angeles County by 2022, a four percent increase since 2020.
In January, the affluent Sherman Oaks neighborhood, just north of Beverly Hills, made national headlines after three people were killed in the street in a week.
Homeless camps are becoming more common around Beverly Hills, one of LA’s most affluent neighborhoods
Pictured is a homeless camp near Beverly Hills on April 11, 2023
Tents are pictured scattered on the sidewalk in Beverly Grove, near Beverly Hills, along with bicycles, wheelchairs and loose bedding
There are no certain statistics on homelessness in Beverly Hills, but in a report seen by the local newspaper Beverly Hills Couriercity manager Nancy Hunt-Coffey wrote that it “appears to be increasing.”
Last year, a number of local residents testified to city council about their experiences of homelessness as part of a discussion to address the escalating problem.
“Many of my peers are considering moving because they think the situation is hopeless,” says Amy Conroy, who says she’s afraid to let her kids play outside.
Recently elected Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass campaigned over claims she would address Los Angeles’ growing homeless crisis.
She tweeted about the Sherman Oaks deaths at the time, writing, “This is exactly why I declared a state of emergency. Facing the homelessness crisis successfully is a matter of life or death.”
The leading cause of death among homeless people in Los Angeles is drug overdose, other leading causes of death include homicide and suicide.
According to Beverly Hills city manager Nancy Hunt-Coffey, the number of homeless people in the area is on the rise. Pictured: Tents in nearby Beverly Grove
At the center of the intersection in Beverly Grove, near Beverly Hills, tents and tarps have been set up by some of LA’s homeless population
Between 2016 and 2021, the number of fentanyl overdose deaths in Los Angeles County increased more than tenfold, between 2019 and 2020 the number increased by 149 percent from 462 to 1,149, and in 2021 by 31 percent to 1,504.
Speaking about the homeless deaths in Sherman Oaks, Ken Craft of advocacy group Hope of the Valley told ABC Los Angeles: “Unfortunately, what we do see is an increase in fentanyl on our streets, which has led to more overdoses.”
Bass told a conference in January that affluent residents of her city don’t care about homeless people and just want to see them leave or get arrested.
She said she plans to house more than 17,000 homeless people in her first year through a mix of temporary and permanent facilities.
Similarly, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced last month that the state hopes to reduce homelessness by 15 percent in just two years and has committed to providing 500 small town homes to help achieve that.
“In California, we are using every tool in our toolbox — including the largest-ever deployment of small homes in the state — to move people from encampments to housing,” Newsom said.
“The homelessness crisis will never be solved without first solving the housing crisis – the two issues are inextricably linked.”
A homeless person sleeps on a patch of grass in a park on the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and crescent Dr.
A homeless person sits on a public bench in Beverly Grove, near Beverly Hills, on April 11, 2023
Some residents of wealthy Beverly Hills told the city council they were considering leaving because they didn’t feel safe letting their children play outside.
Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino has complained that children in his city have to step “over needles” and “human waste” on their way to school because of people crashing into residential areas.
“No kid in America should be afraid to walk to school, and what we found in Los Angeles is that kids are afraid to walk to school,” the Democrat said in a televised interview late last year.
“They tell their parents to step over needles and human waste and deal with people who unfortunately suffer from psychotic behavior – right next to their playground.”
Initiatives have been launched to deal with the crisis, including CICRLE, operating in West Hollywood, which aims to move people who are homeless off the streets and into housing.