An audit of Los Angeles’ anti-camping law shows that in the three years since its enactment, only two unhoused people have been granted permanent housing, while more than $3 million has been spent on implementation and enforcement, according to a city memo issued Friday released. .
The policy, also known as 41.18 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code, which established it, was signed into law on September 3, 2021. It regulates where people can sit, lie, sleep or maintain their personal property in or around public spaces. specific public areas.
Members of the Los Angeles City Council approved the policy in hopes of preventing the obstruction of public spaces, addressing safety concerns near certain places such as schools and reducing the number of homeless encampments in the city.
Over the past three years, the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority and other service providers have occupied nearly 175 encampments, housing a total of 1,856 homeless people. Of those, 313 were placed in temporary housing, while only two were able to find permanent housing, for a placement rate of almost 17%.
LAHSA says 81% of encampments were repopulated, but individual-level data shows that the average repopulation efficiency for all encampments was 39%, meaning about 4 in 10 people returned to their camp within two weeks.
“Our office estimates that the city spent approximately $3 million on ordinance implementation between September 2021 and December 2023,” the city’s Chief Legislative Analyst said in the memo released Friday. “The $3 million figure represents a minimum estimate because several departments, including the Los Angeles Police Department, were unable to separate their labor costs associated with 41.18-specific expenses from their department expenses.”
The report shows that between January 2021 and December 2023, the LAPD issued 3,183 tickets to people for violating 41.18, with about 75% of those tickets coming from the Devonshire, West Los Angeles and Rampart divisions.
“Areas with a higher number of citations are due to increased training on the proper policy and procedure for enforcing LAMC Section 41.18, responding to crime trends within their area, and a commitment to addressing community concerns ,” said the Tso report.
LAPD officials report that the policy has had an “overwhelmingly positive” impact on public safety so far by helping to reduce the number of encampments where ongoing chronic violence and crime occurred.
The City Council’s Housing and Homeless Committee will review the report at a later date.
