Old Laws Keeping Homeless Camps Off Bay Beaches
Unlike Venice Beach, where transients have built encampments, the homeless have not sought refuge at South Bay beaches because of long-standing ordinances against loitering, camping and fires.
In an effort to halt the encampment of an estimated 85 people at Venice Beach, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to an ordinance that would ban overnight sleeping on city beaches.
Officials said Wednesday that similar ordinances adopted years ago by Los Angeles County and South Bay cities have proven effective, and they do not expect the homeless at Venice to move south.
“We haven’t had any problem at all,” said Redondo Beach Police Capt. Ray Graham, a 23-year veteran with the department. “I don’t recall any reports of anybody camping out.”
Los Angeles County, which oversees all public beaches in the South Bay, long ago made it illegal to loiter on the beach between midnight and 6 a.m., build campfires or erect tents.
“There have been some instances in the past where someone has been down on their luck and slept on the beach,” said Capt. Gary Crum of the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors. “But we’ve never seen the . . . numbers we’re seeing in the situation in Venice.”
A request for voluntary compliance with the ordinance seems to work in most of the cases and police are seldom called, Crum said.
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