Homeless Chided for Not Applying for Relief

A Superior Court judge, ruling Wednesday against homeless residents of the Los Angeles urban campground who claimed that the city was violating a court order, scolded them for not taking advantage of relief services offered to them.

Attorney James H. Davis, representing 26 residents at the campground, sought a determination that the city had not been providing for a “coordinated transfer” of the homeless to alternative housing, as mandated by Judge Ricardo A. Torres in a temporary restraining order issued last week.

The order kept the 12-acre facility at 320 S. Santa Fe Ave. open an extra seven days, until 5 p.m. Friday, and called for the city to provide housing for those ineligible for Los Angeles County general relief. The camp first opened June 15.

But of the 280 still on the campground, only about 27, or nine a day, had applied for relief since the court order, Ann Jankowski of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services told the judge.

“I would have expected by today every person would have applied,” Torres said, telling Davis: “Your clients aren’t cooperating.”

Davis said the city had evicted up to 100 homeless people from the campground, but Deputy City Atty. Jack Brown said only 13 were asked to leave--11 because they were not registered to live there and two for violations of rules against fighting and drug use.

Davis, most of whose clients are members of the homeless activist group Justiceville, said the city had also so far failed to issue vouchers for hotel rooms. Brown said these would be issued Friday as the camp closes.

Last week, the City Council voted to allocate $31,000 to pay for short-term housing in single hotel rooms for those ineligible for county relief.

“I’m not concerned with people that will not apply,” Torres said, “because that means they’ve made the decision to live outside the system. . . . What your clients have done is put the city in the position where the city is not going to know (about how to allocate its vouchers) until Friday, when they close the camp and ask, ‘What’s your situation? . . . I don’t think it’s fair to blame the city or the county.”