Another day in Los Angeles and another homeless sweep. Taxpayers pay over $70 million each year for the Los Angeles Police Department and LA Sanitation to displace homeless people under the guise of street cleaning. We all want clean streets, yet homeless sweeps only make homelessness worse! The only way to keep streets clean is to solve homelessness; however, LA’s politicians continue to invest more in pushing homeless people out of sight than helping them. Homeless sweeps do nothing to help people, and they make homelessness worse.
Gregory has lived in a tent for eight years. Rents went up more than he can afford. Homeless sweeps have confiscated all of his belongings ten times. Each time this happens, Gregory is left with nothing.
Larry wants Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell to visit the sidewalk in Silverlake they call home. He shares how sweeps take items they cannot recover like photos of relatives who have passed away. Larry says that when someone walks into a garage and takes stuff, it’s called robbery, but homeless sweeps can take everything a person owns and throw it away.
Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell likes to say the city offers homeless people transitional housing and services, but when I pressed an Urban Alchemy worker on what exactly he was able to help these people with, he responded only to place their name on a waiting list, which is no help at all.
If you live in Los Angeles, here is a link for the City Council contact information broken down by district. Please reach out to your legislators to demand they stop the sweeps.
Nationally, please support Housing Not Handcuffs
We all must advocate for more housing and support services and stop homeless sweeps at the local level. At the same time, we must continue to pressure state and federal legislators. Your voice can help end homelessness. If we do not fix the affordable housing crisis, homelessness will worsen.
Click here https://invisiblepeople.tv/getinvolved to tweet, email, call, or Facebook your federal and state legislators to tell them ending homelessness and creating more affordable housing is a priority to you.
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