The homeless encampments in Venice have led residents to ask the local homeless task force for suggestions.
TASK FORCE ON HOMELESSNESS:
The Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness is hosting a Zoom webinar from 7 to 8 p.m. on Monday, July 27.
The meeting is titled “The Homeless Front: Where Are We Now?” And will feature Heidi Marston, executive director of the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority (LAHSA) and John Maceri, CEO of The People Concern.
Although the homeless count in January was down in Pacific Palisades, it rose elsewhere, and officials estimate that 66,433 people were homeless at that time in Los Angeles.
This spring, a federal judge ordered homeless people living along the freeways be moved and housed, but when and where this will happen continues to be a challenging question.
Please register for the meeting and send your questions to: (https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4gJwHKjEQ2iO_7cJ3HYaug) Visit: pptfh.org
Circling the News has learned that Venice has contacted the PPTFH, in order to learn how the model works here. With encampments lining the Penmar Golf Course and behind Gold’s Gym and with the City taking no action, local residents want to find out how they can best help the homeless, like the PPTFH has been doing here for several years. The effort is expensive (well over $100,000 a year) and requires ongoing fundraising and grants.
LOCAL ENCAMPMENTS CLEANED OUT:
Sharon Kilbride, who is now co-president of the Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness, helped clear an abandoned camp in Temescal and loaded up the bags in her car to take to a dumpster.
Temescal Gateway Park, YMCA Property:
Three abandoned camps in Temescal Gateway Park on YMCA property were cleaned up on July 8. Park Ranger Joyce Whitehead said these abandoned camps were located in a high fire-risk zone.
Whitehead initially discovered the camps because an electric fence was going up around part of the Conservancy property, in anticipation of brush clearance by goats.
A resident contacted Circling the News to complain about the goats bleating and to object about “farmyard animals” basically in his backyard, arriving without any warning. He might be happy to learn that it was because of the goats that the transient camps were found, and the litter and trash cleaned.
On Wednesday this week, PPTFH members went back into the 4-acre Y property and discovered yet another abandoned site. Members filled about six large black garbage bags with additional debris and had it hauled to a dumpster.
In the future, if Albright Street residents observe people camping below their properties overlooking Temescal, which is illegal, they can contact PPTFH.
TEMESCAL CANYON ROAD:
The homeless man was smoking in an area that needed brush clearance.
In the brush below Temescal Canyon Continuation School, now called tk, a homeless man was living. Initially, PPTFH members were called to clean abandoned campsites in the area owned by LAUSD.
The man was discovered living in a tent, surrounded by children’s scooters, a bike and a backpack. When he didn’t respond immediately to a verbal greeting, one of the taskforce members asked him if he was okay,
The man unzipped his tent door and started shouting expletives. He added, “You don’t know me, I might have a knife” and waved a lit cigarette. The police were called and responded. The man claimed to have a job and after speaking briefly with the police, cleared out his belongings and rode down the canyon on his bike.
It appears that this area has not been brush cleared for decades. Even though a stream abuts the canyon, there are dead fronds everywhere and a fire would go straight up the canyon hillside to the homes along Erskine Drive. If anyone has a contact at LAUSD, brush clearance is needed.