Los Angeles has an anti-encampment law that allows certain areas — schools, day care centers, and other facilities — to be designated “no camping zones,” barring homeless encampments from the vicinity.
Voters are outraged at the inconvenience this causes the homeless and are planning to vote supporters of the law out of office.
Well, maybe not — but that’s the story in today’s Los Angeles Times, if you believe it. I’m always skeptical of how the media frame political issues, especially a paper like the Times. So it may just be that we’re not getting an accurate picture of how this issue plays out and how people feel about it. But really, this is what the LA Times has to say about it today:
“This idea of moving people from one side of the street to the other, causing more trauma and more distrust between government and [these] individuals, does not work…”
To his credit, staff writer David Zahniser does lead the article with a brief interview with a supporter of the law — a man whose neighborhood had become almost uninhabitable before it was redesignated as a no-camping zone. But the rest of the story follows a series of radical politicians. One is running for city council to repeal the law and abolish the no-camping zones, presumably so he can bring the homeless back to live around schools and harass schoolchildren while the city continues to fail to solve its homeless problem in the coming decades.
Then there’s another candidate, who is running for city controller (I have no idea whether he has any shot), who showed up to protest the day the City Council applied the anti-encampment law to 2,100 schools, senior centers, and day care centers in the city.
Really — these people who believe things like this actually exist. And in LA, they get lots of media attention. Hell, they might even win their elections — I have no idea.
If we can step back into the world of the sane for a minute, all of every city ought to be a no-camping zone. Camping is something you do in the countryside, in state or national parks, for a fee. Or on your own land. Public spaces in cities are not supposed to be privatized by squatters — especially not by squatters who are disproportionately addicted to drugs or have mental health issues, whose encampments frequently turn into dangerous crime zones. These people need help, not a place to camp in the city.
Honestly, politicians who oppose or campaign against laws like this one should have at least a dozen homeless people sent to camp on their own front lawns, the sidewalks and lawns in front of their businesses, and the front lawns of everyone in their extended families, until they publicly renounce their position.
And of course, let’s be reasonable — help make sure the squatters don’t lose their IDs while making the move.
