Homeless encampments are back in Venice Beach – after nearly 200 people were cleared from the iconic boardwalk this past summer.
Almost a year later, footage from the Los Angeles town show dozens of tents back up, and some 120 vagrants overtaking the beach once again.
Residents are now complaining about a renewed stream of garbage littering the promenade, as well as elaborate processions erected by individuals camping outside.
For residents of the affluent nabe, the issue is a recurring one – after the pandemic presented a plethora of challenges including several still-prevailing housing crises.
LA was no exception, where ‘shelter in place’ rules restricted officials from evicting encampments across the city. A prime piece of real estate ceded in the chaos was Venice Beach, where each summer since, hundreds of tents have again sprouted up again and again – after being systematically knocked back down.
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Homeless encampments are back in Venice Beach – after nearly 200 people were cleared from the iconic boardwalk this past summer
Residents are now complaining about a renewed stream of garbage littering the promenade, as well as elaborate processions erected by individuals camping outside
Just a few weeks ago, an encampment near the Venice library was cleared, CBS News LA reported, while other footage showed a vagrant surrounded himself beneath a pagoda along the boardwalk with a barrier of stolen grocery carts.
Exercising restraint – as has largely been the common course of action when dealing with these individuals for the past three years – Park Rangers opted against employing force in that case, letting the man stay at the site for several days.
As outrage both online and on the ground grew, Los Angeles cops cleared the homeless man this week – only to have a different man take his place.
During this interaction, which was filmed and posted online, representatives from the LA Homeless Services Authority gifted supplies to the individual, including a bottle of water, a jar of peanut butter, a can of Chef Boyardee, and a pair of socks.
However, as the footage shows, the man remained uncooperative – until police were finally forced to act days later, The New York Post reported Saturday.
The homeless tenant who replaced him, a 57-year old man who told The Post he was a farmer from Nevada, promised to take better care of the site than his predecessor.
‘He had tents up and trashed this whole area up. You can’t have that here,’ the man, who gave his name as Scott Beers, told The Post.
‘I’ve had homes before so I get it. These people pay millions of dollars to live by the beach and they don’t want to see that s**t all over the place.’
Beers added that he, like so many of the some 75,000 thought to be homeless in LA county, willingly lives on the streets,
That said, several other more low profile processions, like Beers’, remain – causing officials to once again engage in cleanup efforts and mull another mass eviction.
The past two summers, outreach teams and Los Angeles police have cleared encampments from along Ocean Front Walk between Navy Street and Rose Avenue, in many cases providing temporary housing in the process.
Just a few weeks ago, an encampment near the Venice library was cleared, CBS News LA reported, while other footage showed a vagrant surrounded himself beneath a pagoda along the boardwalk with a barrier of stolen grocery carts
For residents of the affluent nabe, the issue is a recurring one – after the pandemic presented a plethora of challenges including several still-prevailing housing crises
A prime piece of real estate ceded in the chaos was Venice Beach, where each summer since, hundreds of tents have again sprouted up again and again – after being systematically knocked back down
The most commonly requested form of housing, officials have said, was up to six months of motel placements on the behest of the LA taxpayers, part of a program billed as ‘Encampment to Home’ program.
Masterminded by former LA City Councilman Mike Bonin – who left office this past December citing depression and health issues – the plan cost $5million in its first year alone, and has since fallen apart spectacularly, as tents remain a common sight in places like LA and Beverly Hills more than three years after the pandemic.
Even in winter, brazen gatherings of hundreds of people – many of them refusing city aid – were seen in Hollywood Boulevard to Venice Beach, and even in the shadow of City Hall.
Over the past year, the camps -including the ones along Venice Beach – have become increasingly bold, putting up full-sized tents and cordoning off entire streets, while syphoning water and power from city-owned outlets.
Some, videos and photos showed, even boasted working washing machines.
Venice Beach was one of the few to undergo a massive sweep – in both 2021 and 2022 – to clean up the unsanctioned campsites, but as recent reports and footage indicates, the town is once again overrun.
Speaking to CBS LA, resident Mark Ryavec said: ‘It’s illegal to be out there but we can see right now there’s something like 22 tents out there right now.’
The city’s new mayor, Karen Bass, has since taken it upon herself to fix LA’s crisis, which accounts for roughly 43 percent of California’s entire homeless population, 171,000.
As was the case with her predecessors, Bass aims to connect homeless people with shelters and housing – something Ryavec, who leads the Venice Stakeholders Association, is hopeful will finally work.
Speaking to CBS’s LA affiliate this week, however, he conceded he was frustated at how the city has handled the crisis over the past four or so years.
‘The elected officials won’t see this as a civil right issue but will see this as a housing and treatment issue, because as long as it’s all about the rights of the homeless to do whatever they want we will never get out of this.’ he said.
“If we just keep pushing people from neighborhood to neighborhood without getting people into housing and reducing homeless numbers, I don’t even want to think about the homelessness we’re going to see in a year of five years
Efforts meanwhile, are still underway to find shelter for those living in the tents – though the door looks to be closed on the plum hotel stays of months passed.
At least one human-rights group has criticized the communication between city officials and homeless individuals once again living on the beach, with some saying the did not like how the altercations are being handled.
According to Beverly Hills City Manager, Nancy Hunt-Coffey, the amount of homelessness in the area is increasing. Pictured: tents in nearby Beverly Grove
In the center of junction in Beverly Grove, near Beverly Hills, tents and tarpaulins have been set up by some of LA’s homeless population
Bass, meanwhile, told a conference this that affluent residents in her city don’t care about homeless people and just want to see them moved on or arrested.
She said she intends to get over 17,000 homeless people into housing in her first year through a mix of interim and permanent facilities.
Similarly California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last month that the state is hoping to cut homelessness by 15 percent in just two years and committed to providing 500 small homes in the city to achieve that.
‘In California we are using every tool in our toolbox – including the largest-ever deployment of small homes in the state – to move people out of encampments and into housing,’ Newsom said.
‘The crisis of homelessness will never be solved without first solving the crisis of housing – the two issues are inextricably linked.’
A homeless person is seen napping on a patch of grass in a park on the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and Crescent Dr.
Some residents of wealthy Beverly Hills told the city council that they were considering leaving as they didn’t feel safe allowing their children to play outside
Los Angeles city council member Joe Buscaino, meanwhile, has complained that kids in his city have to ‘step over needles’ and ‘human waste’ on their way to school due because of those crashing out in residential areas.
‘No child in America should be afraid to walk to school, and what we have found in Los Angeles is kids are afraid to walk to school,’ the Democrat said in a television interview late last year.
‘They tell their parents they have to step over needles, human waste, and deal with individuals unfortunately suffering from psychotic behavior – right next to their playground area.’
The city’s current crime-ridden state has spurred countless locals and even celebrities to flee the Golden State for a better life, with the most recent being actor Mark Wahlberg, who is fleeing his longtime home in LA in favor for a life in nearby Nevada.
The likes of Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, and Matt Damon have also participated in the mass exodus – as well as hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens – citing a combination of over taxes, crime, and the state’s notorious ever-worsening homeless problem.
Moreover, the state recently experienced its first population decline in decades last year, when roughly 250,000 residents were reported to have left the city – many instead electing to buy property in less costly locales such as Texas and Arizona.
