Several L.A. City Council members back law to ban homeless camps near city shelters

City leaders are considering an ordinance that would allow the removal of makeshift housing near the sites of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti’s A Bridge Home homeless shelter program. Several Los Angeles City Council members are pushing for a new law that would make it illegal for homeless people to set up camps near freeway overpasses and the city’s new temporary “bridge” shelters. Mike Feuer to draft a new ordinance that would allow the removal of tents and other makeshift shelters close to the nearly two dozen shelters that have opened in the last two years under Mayor Eric Garcetti’s A Bridge Home program, as well as other facilities planned around the city in response to a lawsuit currently being heard in federal court. “I support this rule for two reasons: It may reduce the temptation of any shelter resident to fall back into life on the street, and may help encourage neighborhoods to more readily accept desperately needed homeless housing and services in their communities.” After a hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the City Council voted in July to resume cleanups of camps near the shelters. The motion calls for the new ordinance to “ban sitting, sleeping or lying” within 500 feet of a designated freeway overpass, underpass, ramp, tunnel, or pedestrian subway or “a facility opened after January 1, 2018, to provide housing, shelter, supportive services, safe parking or storage to homeless persons.” The proposal adds a new layer to the city’s response to a court case in which federal Judge David O. Carter is pressing city officials to build more shelters to allow the removal of homeless camps from freeway underpasses, which he views as a health hazard.