Judge Grills LA Officials Over Slow Response to Homelessness Crisis

LOS ANGELES (CN) — Nearly a year after Los Angeles officials agreed in federal court to provide more homeless shelter space to people camped near freeways, one stretch of the city finally saw action this past April.

Outreach workers offered shelter beds to people living on an overpass above the 101 Freeway in downtown LA days before the 93rd Academy Awards ceremony.

City workers cleared sidewalks once choked with tents and the area remained closed until celebrities could walk the red carpet at Union Station just down the street.

U.S. District Judge David Carter, who is overseeing a lawsuit against the city’s response to the homeless crisis, showed government officials a slideshow on Wednesday during a court hearing of those cleared sidewalks.

“I’m curious, and quite frankly, interested in how you were able to accomplish this,” Carter said to LA Homeless Services Authority Executive Director Heidi Marston. “And how you humanely did this?”

The question carried a slightly incredulous tone, because the official response to the homeless crisis in LA has been slow and Carter is intimately aware of that progress. Last May, Carter ordered the city and county to humanely relocate anyone camped within 500 feet of an overpass, onramp or underpass and into a shelter space, a hotel room or safe parking site.

Ahead of the Academy Awards, outreach workers offered shelter space to homeless people camping down the street from Union Station. Marston couldn’t immediately say who ordered the sidewalks cleared.

“Who? Ah, the mystical wizard of Oz?” Carter joked at one point. “Who wanted to take this inhumanity and pretend that it wasn’t there?”

Carter didn’t receive a straight answer from Marston or attorney Scott Marcus from the city attorney’s office. Carter showed more photos of people camping near freeways to the courtroom, including a woman living near an onramp in south LA who said she sleeps near the high-traffic area to avoid being sexually assaulted, according to Carter.

“We were certainly able to bat 100% for the Academy Awards, weren’t we?” Carter asked the attorneys.

Eventually, Marston said the directive to clear the sidewalks ahead of the Academy Awards came from LA Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office. The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Last June, the county and city governments entered into a settlement agreement to fund creation of new shelter space. Outreach workers would focus on re-locating encampments near freeways along with elderly homeless people.

The omnibus settlement agreement ensured 6,700 shelter beds would become available within 18 months. But large encampments still flank many freeways across LA County and on Wednesday Carter read through the agreement in court.

“Most of you are not reading these orders apparently,” Carter said.

More than 1,300 homeless people have received shelter bed space versus just a little under 400 people who live near freeways or who are elderly. This is according to a recent report from LA Alliance For Human Rights, the coalition group that sued the local governments in federal court.  Elizabeth Mitchell, attorney for the coalition, said this discrepancy in the numbers could be a “breach of the agreement” made between the parties. Mitchell said that the city and county are also double counting rooms created in the last year.

The freeway agreement is not the only order looming over LA. Last month, Carter ordered the city and county to audit their funds and put together a $1 billion plan that would house every homeless person living in the downtown neighborhood referred to as Skid Row. County officials appealed the ruling and the Ninth Circuit stayed Carter’s order pending a hearing set for Thursday.

Carter noted that the city has applied for roughly $54 million in reimbursement funding from the federal government, but could just as easily apply for $100 million. Marcus said the city is in the process of applying for more funding.

“Regardless of what you’ve applied for, you’ve got well over $100 million out there that you could request,” Carter said.

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