Los Angeles to Permit Sleeping on Sidewalks

In Los Angeles, October 10th the City officials agreed not to enforce the law used to allow police sweeps of homeless people sleeping on sidewalks until 1,250 low-cost houses are built. The City Council president, Eric Garcetti, said he expected it would take at least three years to meet the target, at a cost of $125 million.

The police had used a forty-year old law that prevented sleeping or lying in public spaces and arrest homeless people in and around Skid Row, a downtown district whose concentration of 10,000 to 12,000 homeless people is among the highest in the nation. But a federal appeals court last year struck down convictions under the law, calling it one of the most restrictive in the country and cruel and unusual punishment, because of the area’s severe lack of housing for homeless people.

Under the agreement reached between the City Council and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California the city will allow sleeping on sidewalks from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. People will not be able to bed down within 10 feet of the entrance of a building, parking lot or loading dock.

The city agreed to the settlement “because in doing so we can move the city forward toward our shared goal of ending homelessness,” Mr. Garcetti said. He said it would take effect immediately, though it would be nullified if the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected a joint motion to be filed soon by the city and lawyers for the homeless to end the case.

“We don’t believe people should have to sleep on the streets; we would like there to be a house or a shelter bed for everyone, but until that happens people have to sleep somewhere,” Mr. Ripston said. “What this does is permit people to sleep throughout the city, not only on Skid Row but anywhere in the city without the police disturbing them.”

I have been to Los Angeles and it is truly an awful area to be walking around in. The harassment from the homeless that everyone receives is astounding. In a local park, I recall at least one hundred homeless in a very concentrated area. On the streets you cannot walk down the block without being ask for money at least five times. It is good that the city is building the housing for the people however it may make the situation worse if they allow sleeping on local streets and sidewalks.