Op-Ed: Listen to the neighbors of homeless encampments. We aren’t just grousing

Tents and temporary structures along the Venice Beach boardwalk last May. After the pandemic hit and the city stopped enforcing anti-camping laws, Venice residents witnessed the rapid proliferation of over 200 tents on the Venice Beach boardwalk this past summer — along with the creation of a major open-air drug scene, along with a triple-digit increase in robberies and soaring rates of other crimes. The Los Angeles City Council spent $5 million in outreach services to clear the Ocean Front Walk encampment in the summer of 2021, moving homeless individuals into temporary hotel rooms and forcing those who did not accept housing to move on. Fortunately, 2022 will present frustrated voters in Los Angeles with a major opportunity to elect a new mayor, city attorney and council members who are willing to see what this crisis isn’t and can tackle it through the prisms of addiction treatment and mental health care. Someone graffitied the charred remains with the name “Boninville,” an homage to Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin, whose constituents are trying to recall him, frustrated by the homelessness crisis.