Temperatures in Los Angeles County soared past 100 degrees during this past weekend’s heat wave, leaving individuals experiencing homelessness at direct risk of deadly exposure.
In late June, Governor Gavin Newsom passed an executive order, calling for the clean up and removal of unhoused encampments and delegating the task to city officials and public outreach coordinators. The encampment sweeps have continued throughout the summer despite temperatures reaching 90 degrees or above over twenty times in the last three months.
On the hottest summer week in Southern California so far, city and sanitation crews continue to clear tents and belongings, performing encampment sanitation, along streets populated with people experiencing homelessness.
“The city of L.A. does these sweeps every single day across the city,” said Adam Smith, Civil Rights Organizer from the Los Angeles Community Action Network, a non-profit organization focused on providing a voice to people dealing with poverty.
Last Thursday, a LACAN employee filmed an officer in an L.A. parking enforcement vehicle prepping for a sweep along Skid Row in 100 degree heat on the corner of San Julian Street and 6th Street at 2 p.m.
Later that same day, Smith said LACAN and their partners at the Legal Aid Foundation of L.A. submitted a letter to the city demanding that sweeps be downgraded to “spot cleanings” during the heatwave over the weekend. City officials complied, he said, but there was no formalized notification system available for unhoused individuals to be made aware of the updated plan.
@lacanetwork_official The ongoing sweeps on Skid Row are unacceptable. On the hottest day in Los Angeles so far, with temperatures reaching 102°F, city and sanitation crews continued to clear the area, forcing people to move their belongings. No resources, not even cold water, were provided to those being displaced. Councilmember, Kevin de León, how do you respond to putting more lives at risk when six unhoused people are already dying a day? #skidrow #dtla ♬ intervalo II - whopper
“I was on San Pedro [Street] and 7th [Street], and like a dozen people had moved their stuff, had dragged all their stuff off 7th Street and San Pedro to get out of the way this week, and no one told them,” Smith said.
In Newsom’s executive order, the California Department of Transportation is among the government departments that have been delegated to maintain policy directives to carry out encampment sweeps.
Caltrans’ public affairs deputy division chief, Christopher Clark, provided a detailed statement to Annenberg Media explaining the task of encampment coordinators. According to Caltrans protocol, city officials will typically notify local outreach groups two weeks in advance of an encampment removal deemed a “threat to surrounding infrastructure or people,” a 48 hour notice will be posted at the site and on the day of the sweep, belongings are labeled, collected and placed into storage for 60 days.
“California has made unprecedented investments and provided ample funding for local governments to address the homelessness crisis — with $27 billion invested since 2019, including $1 billion geared toward local communities,” Clark wrote in an email to Annenberg Media.
While he does not fault the outreach workers tasked with conducting the sweeps, Smith questioned the overall sustainability of the state government pouring funding into building shelters for people who have had their encampments cleared.
“There’s always been a shelter system in Los Angeles, and what we need is a robust housing system,” Smith said. “We need social housing. We need the city to be responsible for actual housing, and not just facilitating shelters.”