Jul 09

San Diego Situation An Echo Across the Land

Plenty of homes for those who can afford 2-5k a month in rent. Tents for those who cannot.

 
Check out: Homelessness News San Diego on Facebook.  This post is from their FB  Page
Not only true in San Diego, but all over California.  Redevelopment, Urban Renewal, and other programs that gave billions to real estate and development companies are one cause. They built thousands of luxury units and a few “senior” apartments that quickly became occupied by seniors from other countries who were “political refugees.”  Not many Americans in these places, full of old people from around the world who never worked a day in their lives in the U.S., but now on the dole, getting eternal payments from Uncle Sam.  The politicians in Washington forgot who put them in office, forgot about our U.S. born seniors who worked their whole lives here and paid taxes, forgot about our injured veterans, forgot about their responsibility to us, not to some senior from Eastern Europe or the Middle East, of which hundreds of thousands occupy the so-called low income senior centers.  Don’t believe me?  I would be happy to send you to some of these in L.A., see for yourself.  A big secret nobody ever wants to discuss.
Huge immigration, legal and illegal, without any planning also added to the problem.  No, we don’t need any more “refugees” or immigrants until the government cleans up the mess that they have helped to create.  If anyone, from any country, wants to come to the United States, they should be able to pay an entrance fee of $250,000 per person and prove they can support themselves for 10 years.  The money goes to build low cost housing for the millions of OUR displaced persons living on the streets. If the rich politicians in Washington  want to bring in more “refugees” then let them personally pay the $250,000.  My prediction is that not even one would come in under that stipulation.
Too harsh?  The situation has led to a class war and a government movement to criminalize poverty.  Look at the so-called laws now being passed.  Illegal to be poor, illegal to sleep on a bench, illegal to feed hungry folks, illegal to give a homeless person a free haircut, illegal to feed hungry folks in a park, illegal to sleep in a tent on public property, illegal to sleep in your vehicle, in L.A. illegal to have a pillow in your car says new “Goofy Garcetti” law.  Huge “encampment sweeps” around the country, taking tents and sleeping bags from homeless folks to the dump, trashing private property of homeless, in some cities “rounding up” homeless people and moving them out to some desolate “camp” with orders not to return to the city.  On and on it goes, and every one of the items above have been published on this website.  It’s a brutal class war on the poor.  Even students now suffering.  Think about it.
May 17

San Diego “Encampment Sweeps” Stunning Videos

Michael McConnell Posts Videos of San Diego “Encampment Sweeps” Which Puts Homeless Tents and Belongings Into Garbage Trucks

Off to the Garbage Dump
How Society Deals with a poor person.

In a stunning series of videos, Michael McConnell has documented the scores of “Encampment Sweeps” where San Diego cops, security guards, and sanitation workers raid various areas of the city and grab the private property of the city’s poor homeless folks and send it to the garbage dump.  In video after video, these heartless raiders destroy what little is left for a poor homeless person living on the street in a tent or cardboard house.  This, of course, does nothing at all to work towards a solution to homeless issues, it just further pounds these poor folks into further despair.

The so-called “sweeps” are the latest tool that cities across America are using to make poverty a criminal offense.  Arresting homeless folks for sleeping in a tent and looting all their belongings is a reflection of the dissolving and breakdown of our civil society.  It is the tip of the iceberg of the new class war that is pitting the rich against the poor.  The massive shipment of jobs to China and the far east has led to the shuttering of thousands of factories across the country, pushing former middle class folks out of their homes and into the streets.

What has become obvious is that the rich class is now in a frenzy of cruelty.  These “sweeps”, now taking place in most cities, is but the first round of the harsh things to come.  Some cities are even moving homeless folks out to the suburbs into “camps” and they are forbidden, under threat of arrest, to return to the city.  These are the forerunners of Nazi-style concentration camps that murdered millions in Europe during World War 2.  The irony is that many of the homeless men are themselves veterans of the various ongoing wars that the U.S. is waging around the world.  Returning home from service, often with physical and mental disabilities, they end up on the streets.  Now their paltry belongings are being seized, their tents thrown into garbage trucks.  It is a sad end to the American dream.

Check out Michael McConnell”s videos Click Here.

May 14

Happy Mother’s Day

A Woman on the Street

 

 

I have no family, not even a friend

Some days I think that this is the end

The end of a long time of sadness and grief

I was hoping my spell of bad luck would be brief

It’s been going on now for a very long time

There’s no money left, not even a dime

Who can I trust out here on the street

Can’t even depend on my tired old feet

Very few smiles, no looks in my eyes

They leave me alone, they don’t hear my cries

Not even a soul to say a kind word

Or to sympathize with what might have occurred

I feel so alone, no one helps me out

But isn’t caring what it’s all about?

Even a smile would do very well

To help me get through my Holiday hell

–Anonymous poem sent to us at GC.  Photo by uncle paulie of a homeless

woman in a bank alcove in Studio City, CA.

Jan 05

Garcetti Named Scoundrel of the Year

Mayor Garcetti Achieves Top Honor From Website

“Most Shameful Man In The Realm”

Reports Grow of Holiday Raids on Homeless Camps

Mayor and Council Conducting Cruel Operations Against Poorest Citizens

garcetti-awardThe man who has passed laws infringing on the rights of anyone in a vehicle who is carrying a sleeping bag, blanket, or pillow has been awarded the dubious honor of “Scoundrel of the Year”, by the website of the same name, www.ScoundrelOfTheYear.com.  Garcetti was up against some tough competition, but his achievement in attacking the homeless community, as well as his attempt to abolish a citizen’s right to be secure in their property has made him over the top choice as the jerk of the year.  (Last year’s winners were mostly Republicans like McCain for his despicable give-away of hundreds of millions in minerals to foreign corporations and the Governor of Michigan for the Flint water fiasco.)

Reports of Raids on Homeless Camps coming in.

The fact that Garcetti beat out all other rivals is easy to see.  Garcetti’s henchmen, a task force of cops and City employees are raiding homeless “camps” around the City, sweeping up all their tents, personal items, food, etc. into waiting Refuse Trucks.  Nothing is more pathetic than to see some poor homeless man trying to keep his bicycle from going into a dump truck, or an old homeless woman trying to hang on to her blankets as Garcetti’s henchmen “clean up”.  The fat cats at City Hall don’t have to sleep on the cement tonight.  If they did, they might have a change of tune, like getting some real, basic help for those in need.  Criminalizing the poor seems to be a growing trend and another way for the snarky city officials across the land to turn a profit on the situation.

Another Night on the cold cement.

Another Night on the cold cement. Photo by Uncle Paulie

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.