Everyone At Echo Park Lake Has Been Offered Shelter, Says LA Homeless Services. But It's Complicated

The homeless encampment at Echo Park Lake is now empty. As of late this morning, all the unhoused residents of the tent community have either left, been offered housing elsewhere, or forcibly removed by LAPD.

The city of L.A. gave folks until 10:30 last night to leave the park with their belongings. At about 11 p.m. yesterday, an announcement from an LAPD helicopter said that anyone still in the park was subject to citations.

City officials said they needed to close the park for a $500,000 cleanup and repair project.

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority was one of the providers working to find people in the park temporary housing, shelter beds, or hotel rooms. "Everybody has been offered shelter," said Heidi Marston, Executive Director of LAHSA. "Some folks have chosen to leave, but I would say the majority of folks have received shelter."

Marston told us that as of this morning, at least 180 people from the park have been placed in temporary housing.

But some of the unhoused living at Echo Park Lake say that temporary housing is part of the problem... and that the city isn't doing enough to place people in permanent housing.

Here's how Marston responded to that:

LAist's visual journalist Chava Sanchez was in the area reporting last night. He said he spoke to two unhoused people who were displaced from the park. One of them was offered a room on Skid Row, which he declined. The other was looking for a new place for his tent.

Visual journalist Chava Sanchez and reporter Libby Denkmann contributed to this report.

READ MORE ABOUT THE CONFLICT IN ECHO PARK:

• Echo Park Lake Homeless Community Forced Out: What We Know So Far

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