Posted on 09/08/2012 8:36:38 AM PDT by Beaten Valve
How LA deals with its homeless continues to evolve, and recognition of their property rights has compelled the city to modify its approach to cleaning and clearing the Skid Row sidewalks, a place many people reside and keep their belongings.
"You get tired of carrying it around," said Ken Owens, 64, who finds himself homeless waiting for his pension to kick in after his next birthday.
Last year, homeless advocates received a federal court order enforcing property rights, forbidding city cleanup crews from simply throwing away unattended items such as clothing or toiletries or ID.
For want of a workaround, Skid Row cleanup ground to a halt, homeless from elsewhere moved in and the area paid the price.
"It's sad the city saying because we can't take your property we ain't going to clean up anything," said Deborah Burton, once homeless, and now working as an organizer for the Los Angeles Community Action Network.
But it's not just the homeless and their advocates who felt that way.
"You had block after block that looked like shantytowns," said Estela Lopez, executive director of the Central City East Association.
Dealing with issues related to the homeless was a prime motivation for the Association to create two business improvement districts. For a decade, the one that encompasses Skid Row, the LA
Downtown Industrial District, has funded a 7th Street check-in center that provides free storage for the homeless.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbclosangeles.com ...
Funny how the lefties who never care about “property rights” make an exception for the homeless.
If I were them, I would haul my cardboard house to a sidewalk in Beverly Hills.
Hmmm. How long before A&E’s Storage Wars comes to town to film, “Storage Wars - LA’s Skid Row”?
I can hear Dave Hester now, “Nooooope”!
“Well, now that the insane state of CA has given the ‘homeless’ property rights, why don’t they all move to nicer areas than LA?
If I were them, I would haul my cardboard house to a sidewalk in Beverly Hills.”
The article says the City of Lost Angeles was trying to clean up.
The article says the order to stop came from a Federal Court (not “the insane state of CA”).
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