A Los Angeles community has been unnerved by the arrival of a homeless encampment, with several of those living rough in the district seen regularly waving axes and make-shift swords.
Residents of Highland Park, a middle-income community to the north east of downtown near Pasadena, have complained about the tents city.
They say they have called the Los Angeles Police Department, and officers have spoken to the armed men, but tell them they are unable to act.
Carrying a machete or an ax is not a crime, but threatening someone with it is.
On Tuesday, saw the man roaming the area with self-made sandals strapped with tape to his feet, and nose plugs in his nostrils attached to some sort of headdress.
The man was brandishing his ax and chopping branches off trees.
The homeless man living in Highland Park, Los Angeles, is seen on Tuesday chopping down a tree with his axe
The tree was near his shelter. The tent community jumped up around a year ago, and has been removed multiple times but keeps on returning
The man appeared to be wearing some sort of headdress, with nose plugs
On his feet, the man had self-made sandals with tape, on top of his sneakers
Another man was seen sitting nearby holding a makeshift sword.
‘As a woman, I’m worried about walking through my neighborhood because I don’t know what kind of mood he’ll be in and I know that he’s armed,’ said one homeowner, identified only as Tracy.
She told KTLA the man with the ax has a drum kit and frequently plays them throughout the day and night.
Tracy said she has called the city’s 311 hotline dozens of times, but nothing has happened.
Council member Eunisses Hernandez, who represents the neighborhood, told KTLA the homeless encampment – which formed a year ago, and has been cleared and reformed multiple times – is a sign of the lack of housing and support for the city’s population.
‘We want to ensure that everyone in CD1 – housed and unhoused – feel safe and secure in their neighborhoods and the frustrating reality is that there is a huge gap in housing, services and resources available to meet the current need,’ she told KTLA.
‘Our office will be revisiting this particular site to assess the situation and connect with the constituents.’
The homeless encampment in Highland Park, LA, is pictured on Tuesday
Residents say they have complained multiple times about the encampment, but authorities are yet to find a meaningful solution
A man walks his shopping cart past the homeless encampment on Tuesday
Another homeless man is seen on Tuesday sitting with what appeared to be a makeshift sword
Another local woman, Linda, said she had been disappointed by the official response so far, including tearing down the makeshift shelters.
‘They’ve done it like two times already,’ she told the network.
‘They cleaned it up and then right after that, it ends up like this.’
One woman said she does not let her child play outside out of fear of the man.
‘He walks up and down the street screaming profanity and he does have multiple weapons, like hammers, machetes, things like that,’ she said.
‘It’s a safety issue.’
She said she remains optimistic that Mayor Karen Bass’ initiative to address homelessness will take into account these types of encampments.
‘Our mayor, our City Council, people need to get involved and see that it is bringing our values down as homeowners,’ she said.
‘It’s more power in numbers. So, living here, I would like to see a change.’
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It is not just the mid-income area of Highland Park that is affected.
Earlier this month, residents of an upscale enclave of Los Angeles began complaining after a homeless encampment mushroomed on the border of Beverly Hills – with one of the tent-dwellers claiming they were told to move there by police.
The tents and people arrived on San Vicente Boulevard in Beverly Grove, setting up a camp to the anger of locals.
‘They’re fighting at all hours of the day. They’re doing drugs. They’re selling drugs. It’s out of control,’ said one Beverly Grove resident, speaking to KTLA.
‘We pay so much in property tax and so much in income tax, it is not fair for us to live like this.’
Yet James Boss, who has been homeless for over a decade, told the network that he and others had been told to move there.
‘They told us to come over here,’ he said. ‘The (sheriff’s department) and the police department told us to come over this way because they were going to offer us housing.’
James Boss, who is homeless, told KTLA that he had been told to move to the area by LAPD
A homeless encampment has sprung up in the Beverly Grove area of Los Angeles (pictured on April 11)
Those living in the temporary camp say that if they try to set up shelters across the road, in Beverly Hills, they are moved on
LAPD would not comment when asked whether they told the homeless population to move to that spot.
Bass, the mayor, has launched a program, Inside Safe, which aims to clear homeless encampments. It is designed to move those currently homeless into permanent housing.
The most recent survey conducted by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority found approximately 69,000 people experiencing homelessness in LA County, and 41,000 in the city in 2022.
About helped the homeless population of the city struggles with drug or alcohol addiction, and about a third have serious mental illnesses. Homeless deaths average five a day.
One woman who owns a beauty salon nearby said her customers were intimidated by the scene.
‘I have a nice clientele, but now my clientele is getting to the point where they just don’t feel comfortable,’ she told Eyewitness News.
A photo taken on Tuesday shows a naked woman lounging on a couch at the encampment.
Homeless encampments in the Hollywood stomping grounds of Beverly Hills have taken a turn for the worse, as a local business owner says there are now naked people deterring customers
In the center of junction in Beverly Grove, near Beverly Hills, tents and tarpaulins have been set up by some of LA’s homeless population
A homeless person is seen napping on a patch of grass in a park on the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and Crescent Dr.
‘I saw the couch one day out there and I think, ‘Oh my God,” she said.
‘The next day, I came back and see she’s all over the couch and she’s just naked. She was crying.
‘I felt bad for her, you know? I wanted to like give her something to cover up but I felt like if I do the little things, then I’ll have everyone coming and asking for help.’
Some locals point out that while Beverly Hills strictly enforces rules against camping, LA was more relaxed about the tents.
Boss, the homeless man, said that if he tried to put his tent up across the road in Beverly Hills he was immediately moved on by police.
‘There’s nothing in Beverly Hills,’ said business owner Mike Terani.
He told Eyewitness News: ‘Right when you come over in LA, that’s where nobody can do anything and nobody cares.’
dr Kenneth Wright, who owns a medical practice on the block, said LAPD told him they couldn’t do anything about the situation.
‘I talked to the officer — he’s a great guy — he says, ‘Look, they tell me from the mayor’s office, they tell me from my chief, to leave them here,” he said.
Bass, who was elected in November after promising to take on the city’s out-of-control homeless crisis, announced in early April she would recommend spending what she called a record $1.3 billion next year to get unhoused people into shelter and treatment programs.
Some residents of wealthy Beverly Hills told the city council that they were considering leaving as they didn’t feel safe allowing their children to play outside
A homeless man sits on a public bench in Beverly Grove, near Beverly Hills on April 11, 2023
The funding to be included in the mayor’s upcoming budget could be used in part to buy hotels or motels that would be converted to housing, while the city combs through its inventory of properties for those that could be used for sheltering homeless people.
The former congresswoman’s remarks, in an annual address to City Council on the state of the city, came roughly four months into her first term.
Bass added that the budget also would include funds for substance abuse treatment beds for the unhoused, but she did not specify how many.
Governor Gavin Newsom has promised to deliver 500 units of temporary housing to the city, while the Biden administration has sent the city and county more than $200 million for homeless programs, she added.
‘After years of frustration … we can see a clearer path to a new Los Angeles,’ Bass said, speaking inside the ornate City Council chambers.
‘We have finally dispelled the myth that people do not want to come inside. They do.’
However, Bass added that much work needed to be done.
‘I cannot declare that the state of our city is where it needs to be,’ she said.
The city has expanded spending on homeless programs for years — then-Mayor Eric Garcetti signed a budget in 2021 with nearly $1 billion in homeless spending — but the unhoused population has continued to increase.
Bass’ challenge is in plain sight in just about any neighborhood: homeless people living in trash-strewn encampments or rusty RVs along streets, below underpasses and clustered around freeway exits.
Bass, the first black woman to serve as LA’s mayor, who was on President Joe Biden’s short list for vice president, defeated billionaire businessman Rick Caruso in the November election.
She anchored her campaign to getting homeless people off the streets and into shelters, reversing spiking crime rates and developing housing that working-class families can afford.