Hollywood citizens are complaining about a homeless encampment that’s surfaced near Selma Park – along with an array of tents, needles, and trash that have left residents at a loss.
The encampment – which is growing with each day – is a stone’s throw from a local charter school that houses some 595 students in fifth through eighth grades, as well as an elementary school.
Parents and residents are now voicing their outrage about a near-constant stream of garbage littering the avenue, along with increasingly debauched behavior from those camping outside.
The issue is not a new one for taxpaying citizens – with such sites now commonplace after the pandemic presented a plethora of challenges to the Golden State, including its still-prevailing housing crisis. LA was no exception, where ‘shelter in place’ rules stopped officials from evicting encampments across the city.
While there is no such order this time, the tents cannot be removed without the blessing of city councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez – who claims moving encampments can hurt efforts to get homeless people off the streets.
‘There’s needles on the ground, also there’s a lot of broken glass. You’re getting catcalled,’ Jeannie Vasquez told ABC 7 Los Angeles in a filmed interview from her embattled neighborhood.
‘You’re getting people that have mental illness,’ She recounted some of the sights she and others in the affluent area have been regularly subjected to in recent weeks.
‘You’re seeing profanity. Sometimes you see people naked running around.
‘It looks like a junkyard on our block, and it’s just not safe.’
Neighbors voiced similar outrage over the state of the treelined street, where last month reports surfaced of students having to dodge tents while on their way to school.
Further fanning their fury is the city’s inaction in addressing the procession, despite assertions from new mayor Karen Bass that she would soon solve LA’s housing crisis, which accounts for roughly 43 percent of California’s entire homeless population.
