When the City of West Hollywood and the LA County Sheriff’s Department announced plans for a community listening session regarding public safety, specifically in the areas of law enforcement response to mental health situations and homelessness, WEHOville asked our readers to give their thoughts on the subject. Below are some of your responses. The virtual meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. tonight; register here.
DRUG ADDICTION, DRUG DEALING, & OPEN USE needs to be addressed. Look how PASSING OUT NEEDLES & INJECTION CENTERS has helped turned San Francisco into a garbage pit of the drug addicted (LA following suit). People pee and poop openly in the streets. And these vagrants harass all walks of life and make daily living a living hell for those who reside here. The answer is not more super liberal policies. It takes enforcement of laws, especially when it comes to drugs. It takes enforcement of laws, especially when it comes to indecent exposure of people defecating in the streets. They don’t need a hug and a free rainbow sticker. —Dave Beckton.
Blame the city for the lack of Resources available to homeless.
The real problem is with the Social service department and it’s Homeless out reach agencies. ASCENCIA, STEP UP ON SECOND, LA LGBT CENTER, TARZANA TREATMENT CENTERS. What good does it do to have contracted agencies when they can’t provide Temporary shelters, hotel food, showers or other resources. The homeless on the streets have been given the runaround by these agencies.
Enough is enough I have seen firsthand the lack of professionalism by security ambassadors harassing the homeless Throughout the city.
It’s time for Civil rights attorney Carol Sobel Step in and put a stop to this immediately.
Ambassadors do not have any l authority to be removing the homeless
Residents need to call Call City Hall or the homeless hotline number at 323-848-6590.
Being Homeless is Not a Crime !!
Stop blaming the Sheriffs !!
— back the blue
The homeless won’t use these resources, so there is no point in providing more of them. They are on the street because that’s what they want.
Loitering, public urination, defecation and masturbation, disturbing the peace, exhibitionism, being uninvited on private property, hoarding trash, and threatening passersby are all against the law and I’ve experienced every one of those by homeless in my neighborhood within the last few weeks.
I paid hundreds of thousands of dollars on my condo, yet all this is right outside my door … every day.
—gimmeabreak
I agree with JJ1. Some seem to fail to realize police enforce laws. They don’t make laws. For all the complaining about the police not doing anything, it is really the ultra liberal politicians (this is coming from a moderate liberal) that continue to be put in office. Those that think we should build a city of tiny homes in our beach parking lots and that will solve the problem…What we need to do is change outdated mental health laws that we’re made in the times of cruel mental health experiments. Families are not legally allowed to make their loved ones with mental illness take medicine here. The result is they walk around the streets like inhuman zombies. Ultra liberals think throwing housing money will do something. That is treating the symptom rather than the problem. We need to change mental health laws, forcing people onto their medication and under family supervision. Speaking as someone with a homeless cousin in San Diego that went to Ivy League college, has schizophrenia, Won’t take his medicine, the state won’t let his family do anything to get him on his meds and off the street. —Gdaddy
The courts have tied their hands. We need to push for a change in the laws so that people will drug addiction, alcohol addition or mental illness can be placed into facilities to get the help they so desperately need. Allow them to lay in their own filth, eating out of garbage cans and pitching a tent on a sidewalk is not compassion. It’s doing them no good and it’s doing the society at large no good. They need treatment to be on a path to becoming productive citizens. Currently, there is not much the Sheriffs can do unless they hurt someone. We have to get past this false narrative that most of the homeless are in need of affordable housing. An overwhelming majority are looking for their next high, a booze or talking to their own shadow. Anyone with connected brain cells can see this on every corner, in our parks, at our bus stops, and more and more on private property. —JJ1
When did it become the “taxpayers = working stiff” responsibility to pick-up the care and pampering for the failed decisions of others (that INCLUDE decisions by politicians to invite millions of non tax paying, dependent illegal aliens into so called sanctuary cities and states).
There is a direct correlation to the displacement of Working Class Americans (that NO ONE seems to speak up for) by illegal aliens. From depressed wages, competition for low cost housing, deteriorating schools and social services. It was simply a matter of time for these policies to catch up and demand accounting. There has NEVER been a situation like this in the last 75 years. One needs to ask why now? (of course this won’t get posted because it does not fall into the Far Left’s political agenda of PC at any cost. It is time for a cold REALITY CHECK) — Jose
Dealing with homelessness can be addressed after causing homelessness is addressed. If the actions of the Sheriff’s department cause a person to become illegitimately unemployable then how is one to get recourse? I have a BIG issue with the Sheriff taking the contract to provide police services when the sheriff would ordinarily be the next level of checks on the police force’s actions. Take away the state police and you have an unchecked group of thugs who do not complete police reports, refuse to take reports, and even told a person, “Do not ever call here again: during a 9-11… Read more »
There is nothing compassionate about letting mentally ill people live on the streets.
exactly
Listening to the webinar so far,it seems the sheriff’s department is the wrong agency to engage directly with homeless people.Unless the person is violent,they have really no business dealing with the homeless. There needs to be an equivalent agency that can deal professionally with the homeless,an agency that is looked upon with respect and that can handle any situation short of violence.This agency probably will have to be a county agency as the homeless problem is countywide,not just in West Hollywood. West Hollywood should be thanked for doing this webinar to look for solutions, but unless the city has a… Read more »
It would be hard to find a WeHo resident who does not want drastic measures to be taken to be rid of the homeless on our streets.
So why are the people with the power to remove them not doing it?
There are those who speak of compassion, but it’s misplaced compassion; it’s compassion without logic! We want something better for the homeless, but leaving them out on the street is not compassionate.
Homelessness is not a crime, and the government can’t legally force people to be medicated.
What, then, is the “power to remove them”?
At one time there was power to remove them.
What do Beverly Hills and other cities do to keep the homeless off their streets?
Take a look at Burton Way…tents all along until you hit the Beverly Hills border. They don’t put up with this nonsense. They regulate public space. You might see a vagrant or two walking along Rodeo but you can bet your Hermès purse he won’t be pitching a tent there.
When Pat Brown (Jerry’s dad) was in his second term as California governor the assembly decided that it was a violation of civil rights to force the seriously mentally ill to live in housing provided for them by the state solely so there would be control over their intake of medication. While on their medication these people appeared perfectly normal. So Gov. Brown supported the closing of these group homes and releasing the patients onto the streets IF THEY PROMISED TO TAKE THEIR MEDICATION! What could go wrong? The timing of this legislation was at the end of Gov. Brown’s… Read more »
Yup. Truth. Fact.
Los Angeles County has chosen to put in place laws to protect the homeless which is admirable but UNFAIR to the remainder of its’ residents. It is inhumane to allow people to live on the streets in tents or otherwise with no sanitation running water or services. It is also unsightly and intolerable to those that live in the area as most do not maintain a clean and debris free living area and many harass locals, use drugs in public, defecate or urinate and/or expose themselves. The State of CA has a $36 billion surplus. We have many vacant buildings.… Read more »
I’d vote for you.
Well said. Why is that so hard to understand?
bingo
There seems to be this delusion that illegal aliens are non-taxpayers. Many, if not most, aliens get jobs and pay taxes
You’re very poorly informed, Get Real. Most illegal aliens may get jobs but they expect to be paid in cash so their qualifications for public assistance won’t be affected. Those who do have jobs whose employers deduct taxes are working for very low wages, taking that job away from an American citizen. Illegal immigration greatly strains every sector of our infrastructure.
Spot on!
Yup.
so true
You mean STEAL jobs and depress wages for Working Class American citizens. People have difficulty in understanding the word ILLEGAL, It means not legal to reside, or WORK here. My concern is and will ALWAYS be Poor Working Class Americans FIRST!
And “pay taxes” how? Steal someone’s social security card? The audacity for people to try to justify what is the absolute root of many of our problems here in this city and county is beyond comprehension.
The homeless problem is a national problem but response is left to regional or local authorities. A sine city does not have the rfesoiutrces nor the capacity to handle the homeless, especially those with mental disturbances. Living on the street can make you crazy as well. Beginning with the county of LA, the response has been almost worthless; for the city of LA, almost criminal in allowing families to remain on the streets without even simple sanitation facilities. NIMBYs don’t want them anywhere, let alone in a refugee style camp at Griffith Park. There are no answers put forth by… Read more »
West Hollywood is a reasonable size to have enacted their own Petri Dish program when the number of homeless people was somewhat manageable. Instead of digging in and doing some trial and effort rather than research and development, there was and is an opportunity to make progress one individual at a time. A start somewhere is what one would do in a triage effort. You use the tools you have until more appear. Yes, laws need to be changed but more than one thing can be accomplishes at a time. The concept of moving people from the streets in their… Read more »
The liberal polices in LA, SF, SEA etc……..are going to make moderate Dems vote Republican. We can’t live like this.
Not this one – nothing would make me vote Republican the way the Republican party is now.
Homelessness is a complex problem that both parties need to help solve,
BUT. Today’s Democrats believe:
*That freeing criminals from jail and taking cops off the streets will make our neighborhoods safer.
The Democratic Party has moved too far to the left…they need support school choice for everyone. If they really cared about black lives and inner city youth having a chance for a good education, they would.
Although the first of its kind, the American democratic experiment is reaching its breaking point. The two-party system our legislature has converged into does not provide for the surfacing of our best ideals and greatest expertise. Problem-solving is less of a priority when demonization, tribalism, and dogmatic perspectives win elections. Our democracy is not well-suited to the diverse society we’ve become.
Our local elected leaders need to start with solving basic problems. That’s what we’ve elected them to spend time thinking about and deciding on. Some decisions will be difficult, but they must be addressed.
We have a ONE party system in California now and the consequences could not be worse. It is an unmitigated disaster, there should NEVER be a super majority of any political party based on the importation of illegal aliens over generations. It completely disenfranchises American citizens.
Cesar Chavez saw Democrats for what they are as far back as the 1960s, vote scavengers with a dark and dirty history that America is still dealing with 400 years later.
NO ONE was more against illegal immigration than Cesar Chavez because he knew they would take jobs away from legal Hispanic immigrants and lower their wages. Chavez was a UNION guy! He had thugs who did some major physical damage to illegal aliens who came into this country.
Touche!
Well said, Matti.
Today’s Far Left Democrats don’t give a damn about Black Lives beyond the next election. Every major city run by Democrats have created the highest black on black murder (INCLUDING children) rate in the entire nation.
Talk is cheap and so is fraud.
Yep. They only care if a cop pulled the trigger…even in justified shootings, which is most of them. If you ignore the ever increasing rise of black on black killings, you are the racist. You are saying, well, that’s just the culture and nothing we can do…but we can at least go after the police…and if we riot loot and destroy some innocent business owners in the process, well as one BLM member stated..big deal, they have insurance.
Bingo.
So, you embrace a new Far Left fanaticism that borders on the same methods factually used in Nazi Germany, “agree with us or we will use violence or coercion to ruin you.” There is nothing “Democratic” about that and they should be forced to stop using the name. The centrist democrat party is dead.
And there it is in a nutshell. As long as we vote lock step along party lines, we are doomed. If we had a conservative governor, mayor and DA our cities would be more like Beverly Hills..so keep voting along party lines and enjoy stepping in the feces.
Many people are living under the mistaken illusion that this is the Democratic Party we grew up with from the mid 1960’s forward, IT IS NOT! Just like it morphed from the Party of Slavery into pro-ethnic (only after they refused to pass the Civil Rights bill and the Republicans pushed it through…they hide that dirty part of their history). Open minded people used to support and vote Democrat. It has now become the party of elites with voters taking a back seat to DNC leaders lust for political power at any cost. Independents saw this developing, like myself. I… Read more »
Republicans have spent the last 1/4 to 1/2 century trying to keep anyone named José unemployed, uneducated, and poor. They’ve certainly succeeded in keeping you uneducated.
There ya’ go, insulting and name-calling someone with whom you disagree while throwing out baseless information as if it’s factual. Which it’s not!
So much for your “lily white Northern Europe Democrat” perspective telling anyone who doesn’t follow the Slave Party (you do know that, right? [snicker]) agree with us or we will NAZI you! Clearly, you skipped school on the day of WESTERN-American history. And with the name “Mikey” one would assume it was English or from that part of the world, whom arrived well after Spain in the West…dummy. How’s that SLAVE PARTY of Democrats working for ya?
You have it backwards..it’s the Democrats who love to keep the poor poor so they can constantly have a base they tell they are fighting for. And thus, keep voting for them. But after trillions spent in the last 50 years on “programs” that keep them a victim class, they are catching on. Take a look at the number of blacks and Hispanics that voted for Trump.
Yup.
Dems don’t vote for the Nazi Party. Ever.
Guess not, you have BECOME the NAZI Party. (smart people who actually know history see the exact similarities)
You can count on me voting against any leader who let this problem get worse. I don’t care what your party affiliation is we will lose our city if we don’t start demanding people leave the streets and get help.