Posted on 12/12/2017 3:33:13 PM PST by RightGeek
The fire that destroyed six homes and damaged a dozen others in Bel-Air last week was caused by a cooking fire at a nearby homeless encampment, Los Angeles fire officials said Tuesday.
For a number of years, homeless people had been living in a camp along Sepulveda Boulevard where it passes under the 405 Freeway, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Peter Sanders said.
Investigators who inspected the encampment found evidence that people had been cooking and sleeping in the area but did not find anyone there, Sanders said. The department has no suspects, he said.
Los Angeles has been struggling in recent years with a major uptick in the homeless population, with encampments spreading out from downtown L.A. into neighborhoods across the city. A report in May put the homeless population in Los Angeles County at 58,000, a 23% increase over the last year.
The count found that the homeless population in the West L.A. service area which included the Bel-Air and Brentwood neighborhoods increased from 4,659 to 5,511 in that period.
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(Excerpt) Read more at beta.latimes.com ...
Thats what those Bel Aire liberals get. We have homeless encampments all over the place since Jerry Brown came back, and Jerry Brown is beloved in Bel Aire and Beverly Hills
Only because they couldn’t find a “hapless camper” to blame it on.
Very true. But the article did say years, not just this year.
“Los Angeles has been struggling in recent years with a major uptick in the homeless population....”
Rent control doesn’t apply to new construction in CA. At this point it’s NIMBY zoning restraining supply.
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