Won’t Prosecute Homeless Who Are Arrested--Hahn

Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn said Friday that he will refuse to prosecute homeless people arrested for camping on Skid Row streets next week. But Mayor Tom Bradley strongly backed a planned Police Department crackdown, declaring, “Those sidewalks belong to everyone, not just those who seek to commandeer them.”

The department’s plan to enforce the city ordinance banning sleeping and camping on streets and sidewalks, announced Thursday, split Los Angeles’ city government, with Bradley and his frequent foe, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, on one side, and Hahn, City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky and five other members of the 15-member council on the other.

Yaroslavsky, a potential Bradley opponent for mayor in 1989, joined by the others, introduced a resolution to suspend enforcement of the street-use ordinance in the area targeted for cleanup by the police.

Bradley and Gates sought to soften the controversial move by working with county officials to offer free, short-term housing for the homeless, who will be offered vouchers for rooms by police officers. Police will arrest those who turn down the vouchers or those who refuse to move from the streets.

But it was unclear just how many rooms would be available.

“I just don’t know,” Bradley told a press conference.

Although homeless sleeping on Skid Row streets have been estimated at about 1,000, officials said that Los Angeles County, in charge of handing out the vouchers, could guarantee only 50 a day in the downtown area, and these would be good for just three days. A separate city Skid Row housing program has 65 vacancies and could accommodate homeless for seven days, officials said.

The fact that the homeless facing arrest apparently far outnumber available housing prompted Hahn to announce: “I’m not going to prosecute individuals for not having a place to stay. I simply will not prosecute people for being poor, underprivileged and unable to find a place to sleep until I’m convinced a viable alternative to sleeping on the streets exists. . . . I think it is just too soon because we don’t have the beds now.”

But the mayor and the chief brushed off Hahn’s statement and prepared to send officers into Skid Row Thursday to arrest sidewalk-use ordinance violators in the area bounded by 3rd, 7th, Alameda and Main streets.

“The fact is it is sheer speculation to talk about whether there is going to be a prosecution or not,” Bradley said. “That always has to be based upon the evidence . . . and the chief has indicated that he has a variety of techniques that he will employ to ensure he has a solid case for any arrest that is made.”

Gates said: “As the elected city attorney of Los Angeles, Mr. Hahn has a responsibility to file prosecutable cases which are presented to him by the Los Angeles Police Department.”

Second Attempt

The plan, actually written by Assistant Police Chief Robert L. Vernon, is the second attempt by the department and the mayor to respond to pleas from business people around Skid Row--ranging from Little Tokyo merchants to owners of wholesale toy and fish-processing firms--for a cleanup of growing numbers of box and scrap-wood shanty encampments on Skid Row sidewalks.

They complained of harassment by the homeless, and city officials said the encampments produced crime and the threat of contagious disease.

The first Skid Row sweeps in February were abandoned after controversy over the way police officers, firefighters and street maintenance workers with big trucks descended on the encampments and pushed them aside, along with the personal possessions of the homeless.

That action had been approved by Bradley, according to Deputy Mayor Grace Davis, the mayor’s top aide on the homeless issue. But the furor prompted other mayoral advisers, including Maureen Kindel, president of the Board of Public Works, which is in charge of street cleaning, to object. Still, Bradley refused requests that he permanently halt the sweeps and made it clear that they might be resumed.

Work on the latest cleanup action began two weeks ago when Vernon and Capt. Rick Batson, who commands police in the Skid Row area and has been a strong sweeps advocate, were taken on a tour of the area by officials of the Central City East Assn., which represents area merchants.

“To be honest with you, I hadn’t realized how bad it had been,” Vernon said in an interview. “It is degenerating. It is dangerous.”

Showed Photos

On May 14, Vernon met with Bradley at the Northeast Division police station during a Bradley tour of East Los Angeles. He showed the mayor pictures of the encampments.

“He said: ‘Bob, we have to do something, but we have to do it with compassion,’ ” Vernon said. “He said he would like to have his office kept advised.”

Vernon had first shown the pictures to Gates.

He said Gates told him: “I not only want you to do something, I demand you do something.”

On May 21, Vernon said he met in his Parker Center office with Davis; Batson; Eddy Tanaka, head of Los Angeles County social services, and Reginald Dunn, head of the criminal branch of the city attorney’s office.

“We discussed some tentative concepts I had come up with,” Vernon said.

After that meeting, Vernon wrote “a concept paper, a plan” and presented it to the group Wednesday. He said they approved it, and Davis showed it to the mayor, who agreed.

Ali Webb, Bradley’s press secretary, confirmed Vernon’s account. But she also said that Bradley, when told of the plan, had the police delay the action for two weeks while Davis surveyed available housing.

‘Very Skeptical’

The decision divided the mayor’s advisers. Kindel, one of those closest to the mayor, said: “I’m not crazy about the idea. I’m very skeptical. I don’t really think that the answer to the homeless is arresting people.

“But the chief was very strong with the mayor, making his point about the crime problem. The mayor was assured that it would be conducted in a humane manner.”

Kindel said she; Fran Savitch, another top mayoral adviser, and Davis helped delay implementation of the new sweeps.

In addition to questions about available housing, it was uncertain how the police would deal with the growing number of homeless families on Skid Row or the large numbers of mentally ill.

Davis said “we’re not sure” how to handle those problems.