The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to ban camping in 26 new locations across the Sixth District, including several spots that directly affect residents and commuters.
The LA City Council voted 11-4 to add 26 new anti-camping zones in the Sixth District, affecting Van Nuys and surrounding neighborhoods. Critics say the law displaces unhoused residents without solving homelessness.
The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to ban camping in 26 new locations across the Sixth District, including several spots that directly affect residents and commuters.
The council approved the resolution 11-4, expanding the city's anti-camping law, known as Section 41.18, to prohibit sitting, lying, sleeping, or storing personal property in designated zones around parks, underpasses, and streets.
According to the resolution introduced by City Councilwoman Imelda Padilla on May 12, the new anti-camping zones in CD 6 include:
Padilla's district covers parts of Van Nuys, Lake Balboa, Panorama City, Arleta, North Hills East, North Hollywood, and Sun Valley.
The resolution states the "council hereby finds that the public health, safety or welfare is served by the prohibition, and further finds that sleeping or lodging within the stated proximity to the designated area(s) is unhealthy, unsafe or incompatible with safe passage."
Under LAPD enforcement guidelines for Section 41.18, officers must first seek voluntary compliance by educating the person and asking them to move. If the individual refuses or returns after leaving, officers can issue a citation or make a misdemeanor arrest, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Members of the council's progressive bloc voted against the expansion.
Eunisses Hernandez, Hugo Soto-Martinez, Ysabel Jurado, and Nithya Raman all cast no votes on the resolution.
Raman has repeatedly opposed anti-camping zone expansions. She told a mayoral debate on KNBC-TV, "When they're offered shelter, they go inside."
"Making it illegal and arresting people is not the way to solve this problem," Mayor Karen Bass said at the same debate.
Bass supports Section 41.18 as currently enforced but has opposed blanket anti-camping ordinances. The city's previous citywide anti-camping law was repealed in 2021 after a federal appeals court ruled that arresting people for sleeping on public property without available shelter violates constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
Housing and homeless advocates have challenged the city's implementation of Section 41.18.
"That law was repealed as a failed policy," said Shayla Myers, an attorney for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. "Unfortunately, tens of thousands of people in Los Angeles have no other option but to sleep outside in public places."
Jed Leano, senior policy advisor at the Inner City Law Center, called criminalizing homelessness "the most expensive response to homelessness that you can possibly have." He argued that people arrested under the law simply end up back on the streets.
Critics say enforcement of the law leads to forcibly removing unhoused people from place to place, disconnecting them from medical care, outreach, and support services.
The city has expanded what qualifies as a sensitive zone under Section 41.18 since the law was enhanced in 2021. Originally, the law banned encampments within 500 feet of public schools and libraries. The council later added daycare centers, parks, underpasses, areas near the Los Angeles River, and other locations.
According to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, unsheltered homelessness in the city has fallen by 17.5% since 2023, but nearly 27,000 people remain living on sidewalks, in parks, and in RVs throughout Los Angeles.
Padilla did not provide comment about her resolution during Tuesday's council meeting.
This article was generated with AI assistance.