Sweeps of Skid Row Suspended by Bradley

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley agreed Wednesday to suspend a series of sweeps by police and sanitation crews of Skid Row homeless camps and to meet with neighborhood activists who object to the sweeps, according to a representative of the mayor’s office.

Ali Webb, Bradley’s press secretary, said Wednesday night that the controversial sweeps, aimed at dismantling the encampments, had stopped and would not resume until the mayor had a chance to meet with a group of Skid Row social service providers who criticized the sweeps as unnecessary and inhumane.

At the same time, Webb said that the mayor had not changed his opinion that illegal structures, such as the cardboard lean-tos that dot many of the sidewalk enclaves, should be removed and that the city should break up any encampments that endanger public health or safety.

The raids have occurred during a period of fiercely cold weather when officials estimate there are at least 1,000 homeless people sleeping on the streets of Skid Row. Many of these people have gathered in loose-knit camps, some more organized than others, that spread along sidewalks in a jumble of old furniture, tents, shopping carts and rucksacks.

Defenders of the camps have argued that the inhabitants gather together because local shelters and flophouses are full and because they are safer from marauders when they band together.

Critics, including the proprietors of some government-run hotels, insist that there is affordable lodging available that some of the street people are spurning. They also argue that the camps foster crime and disease.

Alice Callaghan, the director of a Skid Row family day center and one of the most vehement critics of the sweeps, said Wednesday that she was encouraged by the mayor’s decision to suspend the raids.

“It’s time for a cooling-off period when people can sit down and talk about the real issues in Skid Row,” Callaghan said.

Callaghan and three others were arrested last week for blocking a driveway in front of the Central City East Assn., a Skid Row business group that had advocated the sweeps and whose director had accompanied police during several of the crackdowns on homeless camps.

Bradley’s decision to suspend the sweeps follows a confusing period during which his office made a number of conflicting statements about the Skid Row operations. After the first round of sorties into the homeless camps, his office disclaimed any responsibility, saying that the sweeps had come in response to complaints by local business leaders and some social service providers who were concerned about mounting crime, especially drug dealing, in the area.

Last Thursday, Bradley said he had authorized the sweeps. But Tuesday, after a group of lawyers opposed to the sweeps went to court, Bradley said that, in fact, he’d had nothing to do with the raids on the Skid Row camps. Rather, he said, he had called for a “parallel” operation to clean the streets and sidewalks of a broad area of downtown, including Skid Row.

A Superior Court judge ruled Thursday that authorities must post notices of the sweeps 12 hours before they occur to allow occupants of the camps to gather their belongings and relocate.

The sweeps had been applauded by a number of people, including business leaders in nearby Little Tokyo who say that Skid Row crime is threatening the future of their community.

On Wednesday, a delegation of Little Tokyo civic leaders took their complaints to the Community Redevelopment Agency, which helps formulate social policy for most of the downtown. They were accompanied to the CRA by City Councilman Gilbert Lindsay, who represents downtown Los Angeles. Lindsay urged the CRA to allow Little Tokyo to expand its development into Skid Row and to resettle the homeless population somewhere else.

“Put the homeless people over closer to the river,” Lindsay said.

The CRA board responded by approving a motion urging the City Council to shut down an emergency shelter set up a month ago on 1st Street in Little Tokyo. As part of the motion, the CRA board said it would look for alternative shelter.