Skid Row Wins! [View all]
Read all about it . . . tomorrow!
The L.A City Council has been debating extending Municipal Code 56.11 to homeless residents for a year or so. The current ordinance applies to merchants blocking the sidewalks with bulky merchandise displays.
Mayor Garcetti signed an amended ordinance that would prohibit homeless residents in L.A. from possessing more than a large trash bin of personal property on city property.
The Legal Aid and pro bono lawyers working with LACAN (a Skid Row homeless advocacy organization) were granted a temporary restraining order prohibiting enforcement of the ordinance.
The ordinance, referred to as the bulk property law, would have allowed the LAPD to seize and destroy all of the property of any homeless resident who had acquired too much property. No notice of violation was required. If a LAPD officer determined you possesed excessive property you could be cuffed and incarcerated and all of your personal property could be disposed of.
Imagine being limited to the total amount of property that would fit in a large residential trash bin that you push out to the curb for pick up. All of your clothing, bedding, food and day to day survival goods had to fit inside or you were in violation and the LAPD/Street Services patrol could immediately throw your property in a dumpster and drive off.
No judge or hearing. A cop says you have too much stuff and it all gets tossed in the dump truck for disposal. That was the L.A. City Council and L.A. Mayor's solution to the "homeless crisis". A city wide cleen sweep leaving homeless residents with the clothes on their back.
Read all about it tomorrow in The L.A. Slimes. Or google LACAN (Los Angeles Community Action Network).
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