California law enforcement authorities cleared homeless encampments from a Los Angeles beach after the directives of Governor Gavin Newsom, who ordered his administration last month to clear up such camps in public spaces.
Trash trucks and government vehicles came to the Dockweiler State Beach near the LA International Airport and sent homeless people living in nearly 50 to 60 encampments packing. The LA Homeless Services Authority and Councilmember Traci Park organized the cleaning operation.
63-year-old James Kingston, who was among the people impacted by the operation, said that he used to collect trash bottles and cans from the beach to make money.
However, he argued that he was not surprised after seeing his shelter going away as he had already experienced this situation a number of times previously. Kingston further noted that they received notice shortly before the cleanup operation, so they could only grab their important stuff and surrender the rest of the things to the government.
Meanwhile, LA’s embattled Mayor Karen Bass, who is facing corruption accusations and some LA County officials, criticized Newsom’s strict actions against the encampments, stating that following this path without providing impacted people with alternate options is a cruel approach.
LA County has nearly 23,000 government-funded emergency shelter beds, but the homelessness crisis has reached an extent where, on average, over 75,000 people remain homeless every night.
Newsom, who is usually inclined towards progressive policies, issued the shocking executive order on July 25 and ordered the government agencies to remove homeless camps from the state’s public lands in the wake of the rising homelessness crisis in California.
His decision came after the US Supreme Court landmark ruling, which authorized cities to remove these encampments to stop people from sleeping in public. Under the ruling, cities and counties have the ultimate authority to remove these encampments, so Newsom also encouraged them to follow his executive orders.
As many cities and counties ignored Newsom’s requests, he recently partnered with his Department of Transportation and threatened the local governments to either clear the homeless encampments or face funding cuts in the next financial year.
Homelessness in California is only rising despite the government’s attempts to pour in big money to tackle the issue. Reportedly, California has spent more than $24 billion in the last five years to reduce homelessness, but the number of homeless people has increased by 30,000 during this time.
