By FRED SHUSTER | City News Service
A court hearing is set for next month to discuss a group of downtown business owners’ and residents’ demand that the city of Los Angeles face a nearly $6.4 million fine for its alleged lack of transparency and its failure to reduce homeless encampments, as required by the settlement of a contentious lawsuit over shelter for the region’s unhoused residents.
According to a motion filed in federal court by the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, a 2022 settlement agreement between the association and the city calls for the housing of a minimum of 60% of people living on the streets in each of the city’s 15 council districts.
“For more than a year, the city of Los Angeles has willfully and intentionally violated the settlement agreement in this case and failed to meet the milestones it set for itself,” according to the motion for compliance filed Wednesday.
L.A. Alliance attorneys allege that the city “obstructed efforts to establish critical encampment milestones and created far fewer beds than it promised to.”
In the settlement agreement, the city set a milestone of 3,700 new beds for the unhoused in the last fiscal year — but created only 1,748 beds in that period, the motion contends. The L.A. Alliance also alleges that while the city committed to create a total of 5,190 beds by the end of 2023, it has created only 2,810 — falling 2,380 short.
For 14 months, L.A. Alliance lawyers maintain, the city “has stalled, made excuses, and waffled in committing to encampment resolution metrics.”
Zach Seidl, deputy mayor of communications for Mayor Karen Bass, said that the city is, in fact, making significant progress in cleaning up the streets.
“The reality is that during Mayor Bass’ first year, tent encampments have come down in every council district and thousands more Angelenos came inside than the previous year thanks to urgent action locking arms with the City Council,” he said.
A message to the City Attorney’s Office seeking comment was not immediately answered.
Paul Webster, executive director for the L.A. Alliance, said the non-compliance motion “demonstrates that the Alliance is committed to throwing some elbows to hold the city and county accountable. The Alliance is unwilling to accept the complacency of our elected leaders when people continue to die on the streets and our communities struggle with the challenge of homelessness.”
U.S. District Judge David Carter, who is presiding over the case and signed off on the city’s settlement two years ago and the county’s pact with the L.A. Alliance last year, scheduled a March 4 hearing to discuss the motion, which demands that the court fine the city nearly $6.4 million for its alleged failure to meet its goals.
The motion singles out downtown’s Skid Row area and two locations in Highland Park as requiring urgent action.
In March 2020, the L.A. Alliance sued the city and county of Los Angeles to compel elected officials to rapidly address the homelessness crisis, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The plaintiffs demanded the immediate creation of shelter and housing to get people off the streets, services and treatment to keep the unhoused in shelter, and regulation of public spaces to make streets, sidewalks and parks safe and clean.
In its settlement with the city, it was agreed that the city would reduce encampments, establish deadlines and goals to document its progress, and return public spaces to their intended uses.
The county’s settlement agreement would create 3,000 treatment beds for unsheltered people with mental illnesses and addictions, subsidize 450 “Board and Care” beds, and establish deadlines and targets to document its efforts.
According to the L.A. Alliance, the settlements will result in 3,500 mental health and treatment beds and 19,700 beds for people experiencing homelessness, including 6,700 beds focused on helping those living near freeways and underpasses.
Although the lawsuit originally seemed to target the Skid Row area specifically, both agreements are for all of Los Angeles and are not limited to Skid Row and downtown.
Carter approved the settlements on the condition that he closely oversee the city and county’s progress in meeting their deadlines and goals.