Officials clear homeless encampment at California state beach
LOS ANGELES — Officials cleared a homeless encampment at a California beach on Thursday, a month after Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered cities and state agencies to take urgent action against people sleeping in public spaces.
Bright yellow garbage trucks rolled onto the sand at Dockweiler State Beach, located behind Los Angeles International Airport, accompanied by county and local police workers to clean up the mess.
The operation was organized by LA City Councilmember Traci Park in conjunction with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. The beach is part of the California state parks system, but the county handles maintenance and rescue services, while the city handles police.
Park’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Earlier this summer, Governor Newsom said an executive order issued for state agencies to begin removing homeless camps on public lands in his boldest move yet following a Supreme Court ruling that allowed cities to impose bans on people sleeping outdoors. He urged cities and counties to do the same, but they are not required by law to do so.
In August he is threatened to withdraw state funding from cities and counties that aren’t doing enough to clean up encampments, while he worked with Los Angeles garbage collectors to take away trash.
Under Newsom’s leadership, the state has spent about $24 billion on cleaning up streets and housing people, including at least $3.2 billion in grants to local governments to build shelters, clear encampments and connect homeless people with services where they see them, Newsom said.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and LA County officials have opposed the governor’s approach, saying that criminalizing homelessness or simply clearing out encampments without providing services or shelter doesn’t work. While more than 75,000 people were homeless in Los Angeles County on any given night, according to a count At the beginning of this year, there were only 23,000 emergency shelter beds in the region.
James Kingston, 63, was evicted from the camp on Thursday. He said he lived on the beach because of the amount of cans and bottles he could collect for money on the weekend.
Like many others, he was unimpressed by the cleanup crew, having seen it happen several times over the past six years as a homeless person. Some people left as soon as the police arrived, while others watched as the authorities closed down their tents. They had received a message shortly before the cleanup that it was going to happen.
“You just take your important stuff and everything else has to go,” Kingston said. “You just have to let it go, because that’s what it is.”