A year after Echo Park Lake encampment removal, few are in permanent housing, report finds

A year after authorities removed a homeless encampment at Echo Park Lake, resulting in 179 arrests, few residents from the encampment have received long-term housing, and many others remain on a waiting list, according to a study published Wednesday by the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy. Researchers analyzed data from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and found that of the 183 people who were on the “Echo Park Lake placements list,” only 17 received long-term housing, while 48 remain on a waiting list. Heidi Marston, executive director of LAHSA, did not respond to the report’s findings but said lessons were learned from the Echo Park Lake encampment that include issuing new guidelines on how to address street encampments. “We are committed to implementing and improving on these best practices as we continue to partner with service providers and community partners on the most effective ways to conduct location-specific outreach to help bring our unhoused neighbors inside.” The report, authored by the After Echo Park Lake Research Collective and the data team at the Luskin Institute, furthers the cause of homeless advocates who have criticized city and county officials for clearing encampments even when there is insufficient long-term housing for those displaced. “In the two months while was fully shut down, Councilmember O’Farrell and others doubled down on the line that the operation was a ‘housing’ success, describing it as ‘the single largest housing event in the history of the city.’” O’Farrell disputed most of the report’s findings, calling the situation in the Echo Park Lake encampment unsafe for both the housed and unhoused.