The Poinsettia Recreation Center may lie just outside of West Hollywood city limits, but WeHo residents of the Avalon and the many nearby multifamily residences live face to face with the scourge of homelessness that has spread unabated here on the eastern edge of the city.
A continuous string of encampments has consumed the sidewalk along Poinsettia Drive from Romaine to Willoughby, and little to nothing is being done to contain it. Dozens of shabby tents have popped up over the past months, providing squalid shelters for an untold number of homeless people. Most sequester themselves silently within these makeshift residences throughout the day, but at night the street grows rowdy and unpredictable. Trash lines the gutters, and some tents appear to be chop shops for stolen bicycles.
Technically, it’s L.A.’s problem, not West Hollywood’s.
But WeHo residents like Stephanie Harker are worried. She reached out to Capt. Bill Moulder of the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station just before Halloween to express her concerns.
“The filth and unhealthy conditions are sadly the ‘usual’ as I am sure you already know,” she wrote in an e-mail shared with WEHOonline.com. “I remember a few years back Peter Nichols and the group Melrose Action Network held a meeting on the corner of Romaine with surrounding residents along with LAPD and WHSD, as the unhoused were wreaking havoc in the area. Let me know if there is anything we Eastsiders in WeHo can do to raise awareness.”
“Even though it is not our area, it impacts our area,” Moulder replied, promising to have his COPPS Team conduct patrol checks and to contact the senior lead officer of LAPD in the area.
“I know they have been doing clean up with other encampments,” he wrote.
Yet three weeks later, nothing has changed. Photos I took this week on a rainy afternoon reveal the sorry state of a once-friendly public space and the miserable living conditions of the homeless population who have colonized it. None of the rain-soaked people I saw there looked thrilled to be living on a sidewalk under a leaky tarp. But for them, it’s still better than living on a sidewalk without a leaky tarp. For us, it’s a glimpse at a tiny section of a conundrum larger than we can even comprehend, one that mocks our impotence as it continues to metastasize.
As I snapped the pics, a man in one of the tents shot up from his seat and threatened to chuck a rock at my head.
“Why you taking pictures??” he screamed.
“It’s for the newspaper,” I said.
“Ohhh, OK,” he said, calmly returning to his lawn chair for reasons I didn’t understand.
Maybe he agrees more awareness is needed. Maybe he’s got a use for newspapers.
For years, I’ve been reaching out to homeless individuals as part of my job and personal conviction. I’ve formed friendships with many of them and learned their stories. It’s clear that we’re facing a spiritual crisis. In Los Angeles and West Hollywood, rents are sky-high while meaningful employment is scarce. The streets have become flooded with cheap drugs, providing refuge for those who have been displaced. The aftermath of lockdowns, closures, and medical discrimination has made it difficult for people to find hope for a brighter future. The culprits behind this crisis are evident: corporate Democratic politicians who have misused… Read more »
West, you nailed it !
Enough is enough already! Round em up and send them all to one of the many unused military barracks in the state. Turn on the water & electricity service, and leave them there in the middle of no where! Of course people will say, “what about their rights??!” What about my rights and the rights of others who are productive members of law abiding society, who go to work, pay their taxes, etc. Don’t we have the right to live in neighborhoods that aren’t surrounded by squatters? Don’t we have the right to go for a walk or a jog… Read more »
The homeless encampments you see in this article are very common nowadays.It does not surprise me as I have seen them all over LA.It is up to residents to complain and object to the placement of these camps. I stay at a small hotel when I visit the area and there is a very established homeless encampment at a side street next to the hotel.It is always there whenever I visit. am sure hotel management has complained about it,but from what I have seen, there is no rush to move them away. These encampments have become so common that they… Read more »
That is how encampments first started. Inaction while they were exponentially spreading, then more inaction, more committees and studies, more inaction, more budgets dedicated to the presumed problem solvers. And so it goes..,,,,,until they show up on your doorstep or your yard. We need a radical plan to deport these folks to rehabilitation camps in the desert. Military tented style facilities to treat the addicted, the mentally ill and rehabilitate those that are able to assume productive lives. That would be an initiative that our city should long since have put into motion.
As South Central deteriorates, the hobos and junkies move up here, because they’re too scared of the crime there. Then the crime — different from the crimes that the vagrants are committing themselves — follows them, and to the soft-handed jello-spined victims of West Hollywood. You voters for Progress!™️ did this to all of us, to my family. I only hope that you communist idiots figure out your ass from your elbow before it’s too late.
Stephanie Harker is a great woman and a friend as well. She speaks honestly and fairly. And I agree with her there are concerns for law enforcement and city officials who must do much more, proactively to abate these nuisances. The facts of the matter are clear. Part of the problem is this: Life in a tent may not be anyone’s idea of gracious living but it brings with it several benefits to wit: No rent, no landlord to lay down the rules. Few requirements to abide, the possibility of like minded neighbors and the freedom to do what you… Read more »
Worth restating that COVID did noting to slow the homeless. Maskless, unvaxxed, fackless and drug addicted, but their health was not seriously impacted.
Shows what a farce of lies and authoritarian government overreach the scamdemic lock downs were
Would love to see the statistics that backup your claim. Please provide so we can all see the farce!
Why didn’t all the homeless drop dead then, oh that’s right they didn’t. There would have been news stories 24/7 talking about how 99% of the homless have died because they weren’t wearing MaSks for the 2019 renamed flu. Their immunity from living with cockroaches and rats was sky high
Answered that in my last post but, the whole antivaxx/anti-mask nonsense is a fad seen largely in arrogant white preppies with very little Science & Math Higher Education, where as frightened unhoused residents have much higher rates of vaccinations 💉 of all types. Unhoused people fell victim to the DTLA Fleaborne Typhus outbreak via rats with a number of deaths in a short time before disease containment was attained.
It’s nice to see others address the elephant in the room
Just invite genocide dictator, (responsible for the Covid virus unleashed on the world) Xi Jinping to Los Angeles and it will be cleaned up ASAP. by Karen Bass, and Gavin Newsom. Joe Biden said ” It’s a great honor and a pleasure” to host the Chinese leader, and Gavin Newsom slobbered all over the dictator. LOL. Newsom finally cleaned up San Francisco after partly destroying the city along with London Breed, and Jerry Brown, That’s all you need to know about our leaders who don’t give a rats ass about any of their citizens. These used identity politics to stay… Read more »
Did you see on San Vicente past
La Cienega, Wilshire. They removed the homeless living in the median? Tge homeowners with multi million dollar homes complained to Yarslavsky. He put the chain link fence up all the way down San Vicente to keep them out.
The tents should be dismantled on sight with a zero tolerance policy. If West Hollywood can do it, any city can.
San Francisco did…for a degenerate COMMIE CHINESE LEADER!
WEHOVILLE doesn’t allow comments that doesn’t tow the line of Democrats. An estimated 2 million Illegal aliens consume tens of thousands of low cost housing and NO ONE speaks up for POOR Americans here. That is the New DEMOCRAT way since they saw a path to stealing HOUSE seats!!
I know you won’t show this…we all know.
There is no WEHOville anymore. Comments are not censored.
Please be aware there is some serious COVID-19 Pandemic☣ misinformation being posted here that is completely off topic ❗
Schools should have never been shut down….hardly anyone under 21 and healthy had any bad reaction to Covid. The misinformation came from the governments over reach. Do you really think shutting down the beaches saved lives? Or shutting down the dog park in West Hollywood saved lives? If you do then there is no reasoning with you
The School shutdowns, Lockdowns and, Masks😷 really did help to control and contain the COVID-19 Pandemic☣❗
Nonpharmaceutical Interventions (NPI) like social distancing, Masks, test, trace & isolate were “Unequivocally Effective” at preventing the spread of the
SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and, saved Millions of Lives ❗
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2388929-lockdowns-and-face-masks-really-did-help-to-control-covid-19/
Will you be okay??? Still mAsKiNg & VaXiNg for the 2019 half a decade later? You should until the year 2099.
For Humanity to survive lethal disease outbreaks Nonpharmaceutical Interventions (NPI) are ALWAYS effective given the limitations of viruses and micro-organisms. Vaccines 💉 have already prevented several Millions of disease deaths & debilitation and, are getting much better. Also prevention of zoonotic disease via wildlife trade and environmental destruction needs attention❗
Progressive political mentality has consumed the entire Democratic Party.
Thank Bernie Sanders no common sense no understanding of cause and effect. Mayors around the country finally recognizing policy’s that have become huge mistakes.
Except Biden who is somewhere on Mars. Working hard to give Trump a victory.
A Trump victory would be fantastic. I would love to have $15 porterhouse steaks for my family, and $3 gas, and no new foreign wars, and record high black and latin employment, and restricted illegal immigration.
Don’t forget Gavin Newsom has made this state sanctuary state for illegal aliens and illegal criminals. ICE can’t be notified. Gavin Newsom gave as George Gascon who doesn’t enforce the laws of the city charter. Clueless voters voted Gascon into office here. How that all work out? Don’t forget Newsom appointed Gascon DA of San Fransico when he was mayor. Both of these leaders started the destruction of this once great city, and state. Clean for XI last week but not for thee! Skid road has come to Poinsettia Place between Willoughby Ave/Romaine along the DWP is skid road, and… Read more »
Have any members of the Public Safety Commission contacted LACCM Zaroslavsky? Notably Chair. Tod Hallman and Comm George Nicklle should make their concerns known.
This encampment has been there before and to the credit of our Sheriff’s deputies, they have been vigilant in insuring that it does not spread into WeHo City limits. That is pretty much all they can do. But as residents we need to stay on top of the issue, working on enforcement and solutions.