Council Calls for Limits on Plan to Jail the Homeless

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday asked Police Chief Daryl F. Gates not to arrest people for sleeping on the streets of Skid Row if no alternative housing is available.

Responding to an announced police crackdown on homeless encampments, scheduled to begin Thursday, the council stopped short of blocking plans to arrest homeless people who live in tents, cardboard boxes and other makeshift shelters throughout the downtown Skid Row area.

The council earlier had refused to consider a proposal by Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky that the city suspend enforcement of its sidewalk use ordinance in that area until solutions for housing were addressed.

But individual council members still criticized the crackdown, announced by Gates last week and endorsed by Mayor Tom Bradley, as “ludicrous,” “cruel” and even “confusing” as it became clear that mayoral aides did not have a clear idea of exactly how much housing would be available and just how police would proceed with the action.

Gates said last week that officers would provide “vouchers” for city- or county-funded hotel rooms.

But Deputy Mayor Grace Davis told the council Tuesday: “We just have not identified all of the facilities available to take all the people off the street.”

And she seemed surprised when Assistant Police Chief David Dotson replied, “Yes,” when directly asked by Councilman Joel Wachs if, once the vouchers run out, “Will you (continue to) arrest them?”

“Until today I had never heard that,” Davis said. “It was my understanding there would not be any arrests beyond the number (of vouchers) available.”

And when told by Dotson that those arrested would probably be released on their own recognizance, instead of jailed, Councilwoman Joy Picus said in an exasperated voice: “Where are they going to go? Back to the street? I see that as a great revolving door. I don’t see any policy formulation here.”

Gates, who was out of state on police business Tuesday, had no immediate comment on the council’s motion, according to a police spokesman, who added that the department would comply with a council request to report back today on its planned procedures to implement the crackdown.

The bulk of the potential housing, Davis said, would come from hotel rooms controlled by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services (DPSS) which, she said, had agreed to provide “a minimum of 50” rooms a day and up to “as high as 200, depending on the vacancies.”

Estimates of the number of homeless people sleeping on Skid Row streets vary from as few as 1,000 to as many as 10,000.

County officials said the number of rooms available to Skid Row campers on what it calls a three-day “emergency voucher” program depends on the number of indigent elsewhere in the county who apply each day for general relief. The emergency vouchers, DPSS Director Eddy S. Tanaka said, would be leftovers from the regular daily application pool.

Those who received them, he added, would have three days to apply for general relief. After that, Tanaka said, the county pays for hotel rooms while the applications are being processed, which usually takes about three weeks.

The council’s motion asks Gates not to enforce sidewalk use laws once the daily supply of vouchers has run out. After it passed, Yaroslavsky said he backed the planned police action.

“If we offer a voucher and that homeless person doesn’t take it, that person has lost his moral right to remain on the street,” he said.

Court Order Sought

But some disagreed. Gary Blasi, an attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation, said he and other public interest attorneys would go to Superior Court today to seek a temporary restraining order against the crackdown, on the grounds that the “alternative” housing offered is not a safe or permanent option.

“They’ll be back on the street in three days,” he said. “Many are ineligible for general relief.”

And the city attorney’s office also still had reservations, according to Reginald Dunn, chief of the agency’s criminal branch. City Atty. James Hahn said last week he did not feel enough alternative housing was available and, therefore, he would not prosecute any arrests made.

“This office doesn’t want to see massive arrests of homeless people,” Dunn said after Tuesday’s council vote. “Fifty beds being available somewhere in the county could (still) result in massive arrests,” he added, if large numbers of the homeless refuse to accept them.

The council also asked the city engineer to delay scheduled demolition of the 1st Street print shop in Little Tokyo that was used as an emergency shelter this past winter, thus reserving the right to reopen it. It also called for a report within a week from a joint council committee on “alternative plans for housing the homeless.”

The council also asked the city attorney to explore the possible filing of a lawsuit against Los Angeles County and the state of California for failing to provide funds and services.

“They have the responsibility, Councilman Hal Bernson said, “and they are abdicating it to us.”