Los Angeles park closed after protest to save homeless camp - Santa Monica Daily Press
A newly installed fence surrounded a Los Angeles park Thursday after a late-night confrontation between police and vocal demonstrators who oppose the city’s effort to remove a large homeless encampment and perform extensive repairs of the site.
Homelessness escalates in numbers and intensity throughout the pandemic - The Daily Cardinal
According to The Department of Housing and Urban Development, Dane County homeless services assisted approximately 3,465 local residents from October 2019 to September 2020. Black people made up 46% of this number despite representing only 14% of the county’s total population, while Whites and Latinos represented 41% and 5% respectively. Seventy percent of Dane County’s homeless population is made up of men.
LAPD cracks down on Echo Park homeless encampment - CNN
Los Angeles officials moved ahead Thursday with the shut down of a homeless encampment in Echo Park following a night of confrontations between police and demonstrators. LAPD Chief Michel Moore tweeted late Wednesday that homeless people remaining in the park had 24 hours to leave. At least 40 tents used by the homeless could still be seen in the park Thursday behind fencing erected by city contractors, LA news station KTLA reported.
Los Angeles officials have moved to evict a large homeless encampment from a major city park, sending police in riot gear to face off with unhoused residents and protesters supporting them. Late Wednesday night, hundreds of demonstrators gathered at Echo Park Lake, a public park in central LA, to denounce the planned expulsion of hundreds of people who have been camping out there. The park has become a major battleground in the city’s worsening housing and homelessness crisis during the pandemic. A growing number of homeless residents have have sought refuge at the park over the last year, with more than 170 tents and makeshift structures set up as of this month.
“We were definitely outnumbered by the police,” said Samantha Curley, a member of Street Watch LA, a group supporting the residents. “The city doesn’t care about vulnerable populations. It cares more about wealthy donors and housed folks who are inconvenienced by people living on public property. I don’t think you can overstate the amount of fear and stress and anxiety that this causes for folks living at the park.”
As of January 2020, there were more than 66,000 homeless people in LA county, a 12% increase from the previous year. The pandemic and economic downturn have exacerbated the housing crisis, with tens of thousands of people behind on rent and nearly four people dying on the streets every day.
Trash bin arrives at Capital Blvd. homeless camp in Raleigh | Durham Herald Sun
NCDOT says it has no plans to remove the camp, as long as it doesn’t pose a safety risk to the public or the people living there. The department says it is following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says clearing homeless camps during the COVID-19 pandemic risks spreading the virus.
Homeless man in Texas first person ever to live in 3D-printed house - pennlive.com
A homeless man has become the first person ever to live in a 3D-printed house. Well, formerly homeless, as 70-year-old Tim Shea now has the 400-square-foot abode located near Austin, Texas to call his own.
Sacramento site for homeless displaced by Caltrans project | The Sacramento Bee
For years, dismayed Sacramento city officials watched as unhoused people set up disheveled tent cities under downtown freeways. Now, in a strategy shift, the city is inviting some homeless to do just that — but now in a controlled fashion. Saturday, under a newly bolted a “Safe Ground” sign on a pole in a parking lot at 6th and W streets, crews setup up a row of port-a-potties and cleaning stations, and city officials put out the word: “This is a place where not only you can stay without being asked to move every day, but we can ramp up case management and make this a full-service triage center,” Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela, who represents downtown, said.
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