Public Debate Plays Out Over LA’s Anti-Camping Ban

An intense debate played out Friday over L.A.’s anti-camping law known as 41.18, after LAist obtained and published a leaked analysis commissioned by the city about its effectiveness.

Friday’s discussion of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) brought out dozens of public commenters.

It was put on the agenda by Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, after L.A. City Council President Paul Krekorian publicly attacked an analysis by LAHSA — commissioned by the city council — which found the 41.18 law has been ineffective.

Horvath pushed back on Friday, saying citations issued under 41.18 are a “waste of resources.”

“Citations do not solve homelessness,” Horvath said at the meeting.

“41.18 pulls systemwide resources and applies pressure to a system that is already stretched past capacity,” she added. “These actions do not result in people becoming housed. Therefore, it is my opinion that 41.18 has been a waste of resources. We must prioritize our resources to the solutions we know to be most effective.”

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, who appointed herself to LAHSA’s governing commission, noted that 41.18 — which is a council-driven policy — predates her time as mayor, and that her signature homelessness program has not used it.

She called for a focus on creating more shelter and housing as solutions.

“It's most important that we continue to move the ball forward and get people housed, and that should be the goal,” Bass said.

She called 41.18 “a controversial policy that was passed before I was elected.”

Unlike 41.18, Inside Safe expands shelter capacity, so everyone at an encampment is offered an available bed to move inside to.

Bass added that she wants to prevent conflict between the city and county over the anti-camping ban.

“I don't want to see us go down the road of warfare between public entities,” Bass said.

Horvath said she agreed, while criticizing a press release by Krekorian in which he attacked LAHSA’s integrity and claimed that LAHSA — a joint city-county agency — is not the city.

“LAHSA is the city and county together and we have to work in partnership, not point fingers or place blame as if LAHSA were some sort of external entity,” Horvath said.

Friday’s discussion brought out more than three dozen public commenters, many of whom gave impassioned speeches for and against the 41.18 law.

People who spoke in support of the anti-camping ban said it’s been a crucial tool to protect children around schools, libraries and parks in the Westside communities of Venice, Brentwood and Pacific Palisades.

They said the LAHSA report misrepresented 41.18’s goal.

“[41.18] has never been about homelessness. It has been about public safety and public mobility,” said Mark Ryavec, president of the Venice Stakeholders Association and a former legislative analyst at the city. “Saying that it's failing to house people is like saying a violin fails because it can't make the sound of a trumpet. It is not intended to do that.”

Opponents of 41.18 — which include homeless service providers and advocates for unhoused people — said it’s harmful to efforts to get people off streets, by seizing people’s property and displacing them when there’s no shelter or affordable housing available.

“41.18 operations largely do not provide shelter options before displacing people,” said Shayla Myers, an attorney who represents the unhoused advocacy group L.A. Community Action Network. “It exacerbates the homelessness crisis.”