Wave Wire Services
LOS ANGELES — City Councilman Mike Bonin, who represents parts of Los Angeles’ westside including Venice and Pacific Palisades, wants the city to explore additional ways to house homeless people in his district, including in temporary cabins or safe camping sites at Will Rogers State Beach.
“With homelessness rising nationwide, statewide and locally, we need to do a helluva lot more. And we need to do it fast, so that people aren’t living and dying in encampments on our sidewalks,” Bonin wrote on Twitter.
“Urgent action means we need to house everyone as quickly as we can, and find safe places for them in the meantime — off our sidewalks, with services, sanitation and security.”
Bonin introduced a motion March 31 to instruct the city administrative officer to evaluate the feasibility of and identify funding for:
• Temporary single-occupancy tiny homes or a safe camping site at Will Rogers State Beach’s county-owned parking lot at 17000 CA-1 in Pacific Palisades.
• Temporary single-occupancy tiny homes, a safe camping or safe parking site at Dockweiler Beach’s county-owned parking lot number three, at 11999 Vista Del Mar in Playa Del Rey.
• A temporary RV safe parking site in the county-owned RV park at Dockweiler Beach, at 12001 Vista Del Mary in Playa Del Rey.
• And temporary single-occupancy tiny homes or a safe camping site at Fisherman’s Village’s county-owned parking lot, at 13755 Fiji Way in Marina del Rey.
More than 4,700 opponents of the motion have signed a change.org petition against legalized homeless encampment in Pacific Palisades.
“If the motion is approved by the City Council, people who are homeless because of drugs and mental illness will have the legal right to live in the parking lot at our public beach in Pacific Palisades,” the petition stated.
Despite the petition’s claim, Bonin’s motion would only explore the possibility of housing people at the locations, it would not create the sites or automatically allow people to camp there.
Bonin also wants to explore using a vacant space adjacent to his West L.A. district office in the L.A. Municipal Building, at 1645 Corinth Ave., as a site for temporary shelter for homeless women, according to the motion.
If passed, the motion would also instruct the Department of Recreation and Parks to evaluate the feasibility of identifying portions of Mar Vista Park and Westchester Park for safe camping programs, while having the rest of the parks remain open for public use and programs.
The Los Angeles World Airports would also be instructed to work with the city administrative officer to identify and fund an airport-owned site for safe camping, safe parking or tiny homes.
Funding would also be explored for temporary safe camping sites at the privately-owned parcel at 5000 Beethoven Avenue in Del Rey and for a temporary single-occupancy tiny home site or safe camping site at a property owned by Culver City.
“None of the locations we’ve identified are ideal, and I’m always open to other suggestions,” Bonin wrote on Twitter. “But we’ve looked long and hard. There [are] no ideal places on the westside, but that doesn’t reduce the need or urgency to act.”
