Jan 02

Now It’s A War on Pillows! L.A.’s Mayor Goes Goofy

New Ordinance Takes Effect January 7, 2017

Thousands Sleeping in Vehicles at Risk for Money-Grabbing Fines

“Get Out of Residential Areas” Says Mayor and Council

Goofy Garcetti Fines up to $75 for having a Pillow in your car!  Is he nuts?

L.A. Mayor Garcetti Leads Attack on Poor.

L.A. Mayor Garcetti Leads Attack on Poor, even outlawing pillows in any vehicle.

The Shameful Actions Against Thousands of Displaced Folks Living in Vehicles

The City of Los Angeles has done it again, launching a new campaign against anyone “dwelling” in a vehicle.  The new Ordinance (Fully reproduced at the end of this article) takes effect on January 7, 2017. It shoves vehicle dwellers out of residential neighborhoods, near parks and schools, and seeks to push them either back onto the street to sleep on the cement, or shove them into “industrial or commercial” areas that are already heavily posted with signs that say “No Parking between 2am-6am”. In other words, making it very difficult to park somewhere just to sleep.  Many of these vehicle dwellers work in low paying jobs and cannot afford the insane high rents in Southern California, hence they live in their vehicles.

Law Applies to Everyone, Even the Thousands of Moms and Pops Visiting Their Kids.

The local efforts to criminalize homeless and poor folks across the State and other states in this Country reveals such a sick situation of conflicting laws that it is amazing the public puts up with these loony politicians.  For instance, with this new law in Los Angeles, relatives who have traveled from afar to visit their moms, dads, or other kin, cannot park their RVs in residential neighborhoods.  Many cities have also banned the parking of RVs in residential driveways.  In some cities, like Burbank, a police permit and fee is required to park an RV anywhere on a city street.  The arriving moms and pops have no idea what a hassle they are in for just coming to Southern California for a friendly visit.

Pasadena Rose Parade Out of Town Visitors Targeted by Cops. 

There is no parking anywhere on any street in Pasadena without an expensive permit only issued to residents.  Imagine the surprise the tourists get who come out from another area to see the Rose Parade. They face tickets and tow.  The rich folks who run Pasadena, the same folks who actually gave their City Manager in effect a lifetime job, really don’t want a lot of visitors, especially ones in RVs.  The thousands of small businesses suffer from a constant loss of business from out of town visitors who are denied a place to park overnight.  Unless you can afford to stay in a $300 dollar a night hotel room.

LA Outlaws Sleeping Bags, Blankets, Pillows, Cooking Utensils, in any Vehicle

The new Ordinance actually prohibits the public from carrying a sleeping bag, pillow, sheet, blanket or other items in your vehicle.  Ironic as the City disaster folks are telling everyone to carry just those things in your vehicle for an emergency, such as an earthquake.  Will the City set up checkpoints around town to search all vehicles for pillows?  The perfidy of the sociopaths who run the City has now hit an all-time high with this one.

The City Does Not Have Even One Decent Solution to the Many Problems of the Poor

Many thinking people and websites have sent in or published solutions to some of the problems.  The City has ignored all of them.  We have proposed safe overnight parking facilities, for instance.  There should also be well placed areas for RVs and Campers to dump grey water and get fresh water.  The City has never tried to even provide adequate rest room facilities for both homeless and tourists,  Much of the low-cost housing that was built for our poor and seniors is occupied by foreign immigrants who never worked a day in their life in this Country.  Another taboo subject not to be mentioned in the hallowed chambers of City Hall. And by the way, we are not talking about Mexicans or Hispanic folks.  We are talking about the many thousands of old people brought in to L.A. County from European, Russian, and Middle Eastern countries and given low cost housing plus benefits for political asylum.  

Not Everyone Sleeping in Their Vehicle is “Homeless

Let’s face the fact that many folks could have reason to dwell in their vehicle.  Folks coming into L.A  to live and work sometimes have to live out of their vehicle until they can even find an apartment and a job. Tourists from around the world travel in RVs and Campers on their vacations.  Seniors who can’t get into the low cost housing that was allegedly built for them are more and more living in their cars because they can’t afford rent. There’s also a growing trend of folks who just want the freedom of living in a vehicle. There’s also the traditional gypsy lifestyle.  And then there’s the 50,000 homeless in L.A  Criminalizing poor people, homeless folks, seniors, visitors, and tourists is a despicable act of cowardliness by the Mayor and  Council.

Below is the Complete Text of the New Ordinance.

 

ORDINANCE NO. 184530 An ordinance amending Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 85.02 to establish regulations governing the use of vehicles for dwelling on City public streets and to provide a sunset of the regulations in 18 months. The City finds and declares the following:

 

WHEREAS, for a variety of social, economic and personal reasons, many people dwell in their vehicles on City public streets;

 

WHEREAS, some people with homes choose temporarily to dwell in their vehicle on public streets because of financial considerations, such as a person catching an early morning flight or train and instead of paying for a hotel room decides to dwell in his or her vehicle overnight on a public street near the airport or train station;

 

WHEREAS, some people have no housing and they believe their safest option for dwelling is in their vehicle on public streets;

 

WHEREAS, substantial public health, safety and quality-of-life concerns are posed by persons who use their vehicles for dwelling on public streets, especially on streets in residential areas or in sensitive areas, such as near schools, day care facilities and parks;

 

WHEREAS, there have been numerous complaints by residents of litter, unsanitary conditions, noise and crime, sometimes resulting in altercations, when persons dwell in their vehicles in residential and sensitive areas;

 

WHEREAS, the conditions described above have resulted in and will likely continue to result in blight, sanitary and public health concerns, excessive noise and crime, not only affecting residents, but also affecting persons who dwell in vehicles and are at a heightened risk of assault, robbery and other criminal activity;

 

WHEREAS, dwelling in vehicles on public streets diminishes the economic viability of the City and its many tourist attractions;

 

WHEREAS, the City has an interest in balancing the needs of those individuals who dwell in their vehicles and the needs of all City residents, businesses and visitors for clean, healthy and safe public areas;

 

WHEREAS, the City’s existing law addressing vehicle dwelling was found to be unconstitutional by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal in Desertrain v. City of Los Angeles; 1

 

WHEREAS, the City currently has no reliable information on the number and location of people using vehicles as dwellings or the impacts to health, safety and the physical environment, if any, resulting from this activity, and is unable to obtain such information from other sources;

 

WHEREAS, the City has reasonably determined that gathering the information necessary to evaluate the impacts to health, safety and the physical environment, if any, due to the use of vehicles for dwelling on public streets will take approximately eighteen months;

 

WHEREAS, the City intends to allow vehicle dwelling in order to gather data and information related to impacts to public health, safety and the physical environment, if any, for use in developing permanent regulations pertaining to the use of vehicles for dwelling on public streets in the City; WHEREAS, the City intends to allow vehicle dwelling only on non-residential streets and on streets that do not have a school, pre-school, day care facility or park;

 

WHEREAS, the restriction on vehicle dwelling regulates the conduct of dwelling in a vehicle on a public street and is not a parking restriction;

 

WHEREAS, the City has determined that the regulations will not result in a serious or major disturbance to an environmental resource;

 

WHEREAS, the City intends to provide public outreach regarding the provisions of this ordinance, including engaging the assistance of homeless service providers such as the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and making publicly available on the City’s website maps identifying streets where vehicle dwelling is allowed;

 

and WHEREAS, the Chief Administrative Officer will coordinate the collection and analysis of data and information by City departments and third party organizations with relevant expertise for purposes of determining the impacts to public health, safety and the physical environment due to the implementation of these vehicle dwelling regulations and will compile the resulting data and analysis into a report with recommendations for action to the City Council and Mayor within eighteen months of the effective date of this ordinance.

 

NOW, THEREFORE, THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES DO ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS: Section 1. Section 85.02 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code is repealed in its entirety and replaced as follows: SEC. 85.02. REGULATING THE USE OF VEHICLES FOR DWELLING.

 

A. Use of Vehicles for Dwelling Restricted on City Streets. No person shall use a Vehicle for Dwelling as follows:

 

Between the hours of 9:00 P.M. and 6:00 A.M. on any Residential Street; or

At any time within a one Block radius of any edge of a lot containing a park or a licensed school, pre-school or daycare facility.

 

Nothing herein precludes the enforcement of any other laws such as parking restrictions, including, but not limited to, prohibitions on overnight parking.

 

B. Definitions: As used in this section:

 

Block is defined as 500 feet.

 

Dwelling means more than one of the following activities and when it reasonably appears, in light of all the circumstances, that a person is using a vehicle as a place of residence or accommodation:

 

Possessing inside or on a vehicle items that are not associated with ordinary vehicle use, such as a sleeping bag, bedroll, blanket, sheet, pillow, kitchen utensils, cookware, cooking equipment, bodily fluids.

 

Obscuring some or all of the vehicle’s windows. Preparing or cooking meals inside or on a vehicle. Sleeping inside a vehicle

 

Residential Street means any street which adjoins one or more single family or multi-family residentially zoned parcel.

 

Vehicle means any motor vehicle, trailer, house car or trailer coach as defined California Vehicle Code.

 

C. Penalty. A first violation of this section shall be punishable as an infraction not to exceed $25. A second violation of this section shall be punishable as an infraction not to exceed $50 and all subsequent violations of this section shall punishable as an infraction not to exceed $75. Violators may be eligible for referral to a prosecutorial-led diversion program such as the Homeless Engagement and Response Team (HEART). D. Sunset Provisions. The provisions of this section shall expire and be deemed to have been repealed on July 1, 2018, unless extended by ordinance. E. Severability. If any portion, subsection, sentence, clause or phrase of this section is for any reason held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such a decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this section. The City Council hereby declares that it would have passed this ordinance and each portion or subsection, sentence, clause and phrase herein, irrespective of the fact that any one or more portions, subsections, sentences, clauses or phrases be declared invalid.