Homeless tents were back at the Venice boardwalk on
August 10 when CTN visited.
According to the August 5 L.A. Times Editorial (“Homeless People on Venice Beach Got Interim Housing. Can’t This Happen All Over the City?”): “Over the course of six weeks, service providers aided by local officials moved 211 homeless people who had camped along the Venice boardwalk for more than a year. Most of them now have interim housing, mainly in hotels and motels. A handful went to the transitional shelter in Venice. Did it cost a lot of money? Yes. Did it take a lot of effort? Yes. In fact, it took a village — of outreach workers and others — to move and temporarily house the scores of people who had made the beach their home.
“What it did not take was a force of 750 Los Angeles police officers, as was the case during the tense showdown at Echo Park Lake in the spring, when a large encampment there was cleared out.”
The Times praised Councilman Mike Bonin for his leadership and his ability to secure $5 million in funding for services and rental vouchers. They noted that the lie of “service resistant was disproved” and the vast majority of the people living on the boardwalk agreed to housing by the end of July.
After citing this editorial in his August 9 newsletter, Bonin wrote: “Can you please contribute to my reelection campaign so I can continue to fight for real solutions to our homeless crisis?”
The homeless found different areas to camp.
By contrast, on the Venice Stakeholders Association site (venicestakeholdersassociation.org), one person wrote on August 7 that he had ridden on the bike path from Venice Boulevard to Santa Monica.
“There are now 48 homeless campers (or ‘travelers,’ as the case may be), most scattered on the sand, representing a 20% increase since earlier in the week,” the Venice resident wrote. “There are fewer tents and more tarps, backpacks, bedrolls and sleeping bags. The Boardwalk and adjacent grass areas are relatively clear.”
The site notes that when Councilman Bonin first announced his Encampment-to-Homes project for Venice Beach, a resident was quoted in the LA Times saying that without a return to enforcement of the camping and tent ban, and the overnight curfew, the encampments would return. “Well, that is starting to happen,” the Venice resident wrote. “Or not all the earlier campers were really relocated to housing. And I think it’s the latter.”
During the recent Venice Beach cleanup, CTN learned that seven new transient “travelers” had moved from Venice to Pacific Palisades and that there was an uptick in homeless at Westchester and Mar Vista Parks.
During a reporting visit to the Venice Beach Boardwalk on August 10, we found that the Venice Stakeholders Association observations seemed to be correct. Although the line of tents was no longer along the boardwalk, tents and bedrolls were hidden in nooks and crannies next to buildings. There were tents on the sand—and a loud argument between two individuals, fighting over public benches, was occurring.
Perhaps the most objective take on the current situation is from a local YouTuber (“German in Venice”) who has been documenting Venice: https://youtu.be/NWrx4pvUy1Q. If you go beyond his plea for subscribers and donors, his recorded observations in “Update/New Homeless in Venice every day, Business is dead in Venice/reopen muscle beach” seem accurate.
A skateboarder is oblivious to the homeless woman, who has scattered her “stuff” over the ledge.
This afternoon about 5:30 pm my wife and I walked past two old RVs parked in Ralph’s parking lot in the area where the car wash parks cars. These RVs were parked cross ways each taking up about 2-3 parking slots. They certainly looked like the kind we see on the PCH. Looks like the homeless are moving to PP from Venice.
Will send you a photo.
Happy Birthday to John!
My feeling is to forget about all recalls & wait for the next election. Good candidates are surfacing to replace ineffective leaders. Recalls are a waste of money & manpower.
Waiting for Bonin to become reasonable and offer rational and effective plans has been a long, frustrating, and disappointing wait. Ineffective and/or corrupt politicians need to be removed. The longer we wait, the more money and time wasted. Recall is an effective tool given to the people; we need to use it.
Recall sends a message that we refuse to be complacent in allowing ineffective & unresponsive elected officials to remain. Mike Bonin has shown us time & again that he does not represent residents & schools & business owners interests for a clean & safe community. He has demonstrated that he can no longer be effective in his important job. He must resign as our safety & well being are at stake.