In East Hollywood, Dennis Henriquez, a musician, found himself waking up in a doorway, concealed by cardboard and sheltered under a tarp last month.
As he cautiously peered outside, he noticed a group of sanitation workers assembling nearby, ready to undertake one of the over 30 homeless encampment cleanups scheduled for that day across Los Angeles.
Henriquez eventually stepped out of his temporary shelter, maneuvering a bicycle and carefully setting it down on a grassy area a mere 20 feet away.
Along with the bike, he transported a backpack, a scooter, two guitars, a suitcase, and a beach chair.
The sanitation crew quickly seized the tarp and cardboard, discarding them into a trash truck before departing, leaving Henriquez alone with his belongings.
Such operations, termed CARE-plus cleanups, occur hundreds of times weekly within the city, where sanitation teams confiscate and dispose of a wide range of items, including tents, tarps, pallets, and shopping carts.
These cleanups have become a focal point of contention in an ongoing legal dispute surrounding the city’s management of the homelessness crisis.
Depending on how these cleanup practices are adjudicated, the city may face legal repercussions, significant fines, or increased oversight concerning its homeless initiatives.
In an agreement reached in 2022, city officials pledged to establish 12,915 homeless beds or alternative housing solutions by June 2027 and committed to dismantling 9,800 homeless encampments by June 2026.
Each encampment is defined as a single tent, makeshift structure, car, or recreational vehicle.
To satisfy the latter commitment, city leaders have been counting every encampment removed during the Bureau of Sanitation’s CARE-plus cleanups, even in instances where the former residents did not receive housing or a place in a shelter.
The L.A. Alliance for Human Rights has vocally opposed the city’s methodology, asserting that the destruction of a tent without providing housing to its occupant violates the settlement agreement from 2022.
According to Elizabeth Mitchell, an attorney for the alliance, any resolution regarding encampments must be more enduring and focus on the broader objective of diminishing homelessness.
“If the person insists on staying where they are and nothing else has happened, that’s not a resolution,” she explained.
“They can’t count that.”
City officials assert that they conduct CARE-plus cleanups to ensure public safety and restore sidewalk accessibility for those with disabilities and the elderly.
Some encampments overwhelm public walkways with debris and waste, while others are replete with foul odors from urine and decomposing food.
The nature of these cleanups often appears relentless.
Many long-term residents simply drag their tents across the street, wait for the cleanup crews to pass, and return to their customary spots as soon as the workers leave.
This pattern seems to repeat itself every week or two.
The L.A. Alliance’s legal representatives, alarmed by the city counting CARE-plus cleanups in their encampment reduction totals, recently attempted to persuade a federal judge to assume control over the city’s efforts regarding homelessness from Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council, proposing a third-party receiver instead.
However, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who oversees the case, refrained from taking such sweeping action, indicating it would be excessively intrusive.
Nonetheless, the judge has expressed dissatisfaction with the city’s approach to reducing the 9,800 encampments.
In March, he issued a court order stipulating that the city could not count CARE-plus cleanups toward its target because, as the alliance contended, they are “not permanent in nature.”
In a decision released last month, Judge Carter articulated that the city had “willfully disobeyed” the previous order regarding cleanup counts and improperly reported encampment reductions.
He further clarified that an encampment reduction could only be recognized if it was paired with an offer of shelter or housing.
“Individuals need not accept the offer, but an offer of available shelter or housing must be made,” he wrote emphatically.
Attorney Shayla Myers, representing homeless advocacy groups involved in the lawsuit, has voiced vehement opposition to the 9,800 encampment removal goal, arguing it creates a quota system likely to result in violations of the property rights of unhoused residents.
“Throwing away tents doesn’t help the homelessness crisis,” she asserted.
“Building housing does.”
Matt Szabo, the City Administrative Officer who participated in negotiating the settlement, testified last month that his office does not consider the tents that homeless individuals relocate temporarily during city cleanups in their encampment count.
However, he indicated that they include those that are permanently removed due to obstruction of public pathways or posing public health and safety hazards.
Szabo explained that he did not anticipate that every tent removal would lead to a displaced person receiving shelter during negotiations for the 9,800 encampment removal goal.
As part of their ongoing commitment, the city is making strides to fulfill the requirement of creating the promised 12,915 homeless beds or housing solutions.
Szabo also pointed out that encampment residents retain the “free will” to reject housing offers.
“I wouldn’t ever agree that the city would be obligated to somehow force people to accept [housing] if they did not want to accept it,” he commented.
“We never would have agreed to that. We didn’t agree to that.”
To outsiders, comprehending the different purposes of the city’s encampment strategies may prove challenging.
Mayor Bass’ Inside Safe initiative is focused on relocating homeless individuals into hotel and motel accommodations and even permanent housing in certain instances.
Conversely, CARE cleanups — which stands for Cleanup and Rapid Engagement — primarily target trash removal, with crews collecting debris from curbs and adjacent areas.
In contrast, CARE-plus cleanups are more extensive, requiring that every tent be moved so sanitation workers can effectively clear debris and, at times, pressure wash sidewalks.
Sanitation crews are mandated to issue advance notices to residents regarding forthcoming CARE-plus cleanups by posting them on utility poles.
Failure to move their tents and possessions places individuals at risk of losing their belongings.
In certain situations, cleanup crews transport items to a downtown storage facility; in many others, belongings are discarded outright.
One of the most significant CARE-plus cleanups recently was executed in the Westlake district, where sanitation workers cleared nearly three dozen tents and makeshift structures along Wilshire Boulevard.
A construction loader traversed the sidewalk, scooping up tents and disposing of them in a trash truck.
Ryan Cranford, age 42, noted that he wasn’t informed about the cleanup until mere minutes before it commenced.
He ended up losing a tent, a bed, and a canopy but managed to retain his backpack, which he described as containing “all that matters.”
Perched on a nearby retaining wall, Cranford mentioned he would have accepted a motel room had someone extended an offer.
“Hell, I’d even take a bus to get all the way back to Oklahoma if I could,” he lamented.
Meanwhile, Tyson Lewis Angeles was relocating his belongings in a shopping cart when sanitation workers approached.
He shared that an outreach worker had provided him with a shelter bed referral just the preceding day but expressed his reluctance due to his battles with panic attacks, PTSD, and other mental health challenges, along with his aversion to living with roommates or adhering to shelter rules.
He described shelters as akin to “volunteer jail.”
While Angeles succeeded in protecting his possessions, countless others are not as fortunate.
Nicholas Johnson, who lives in a box truck in Silver Lake, related that city crews took the majority of his belongings during a CARE-plus cleanup.
Some items were disposed of, while others were sent to a downtown storage facility, according to Johnson, age 56.
He remains uncertain whether treasured items, including letters from his grandmother, were damaged or saved.
Additionally, city workers seized his clothing, tools, and multiple personal items, reflecting the chaotic and invasive nature of the cleanups.
Johnson articulated that the cleanup procedure feels like a “harassment ceremony” that intensifies the stress faced by those living on the streets.
“They hit you in the kneecaps when they know you’re already down,” he expressed.
Earlier in the year, officials disclosed to the court that they had removed roughly 6,100 tents, makeshift shelters, and vehicles — accounting for nearly two-thirds of the encampment removal target set in their agreement with the alliance.
Whether the city intends to challenge any aspect of the judge’s recent order remains unclear.
In a statement provided to the press, a city attorney contended that the ruling “misconstrues the city’s obligations.”
“We are keeping open our options for next steps,” the lawyer, Theane Evangelis, concluded.
image source from：latimes
