SILVERLAKE : Homeless Campers Removed from Site

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg has ordered--as promised--the breakup of a homeless encampment on Riverside Drive, even though she could not fulfill her goal to find long-term housing for the people dwelling there.

No parking signs went up earlier this month along a stretch between Fletcher Drive and Allesandro Street, making it illegal for the homeless to park and live in their cars, trucks and trailers. Since then, most of those living in the 25 to 30 vehicles parked in the area have moved.

Goldberg’s office was unsuccessful in a yearlong search for property where the vehicles could park, but had promised complaining residents that the homeless would be gone by March 31. Residents told Goldberg they were fed up with the trash, improper sanitary conditions and the unsightliness of people living in the aging vehicles.

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority worked with the group, eventually offering some of the homeless passes that would allow them to park their recreational vehicles in state campgrounds. One man, who was given rental assistance, found an apartment. The others just didn’t return.

“Our office feels bad in that we were unable to find a longer-term solution for these people,” said Sharon Delugach, a Goldberg spokeswoman. “What we said from the very beginning was the solution was not just moving people along, which is what’s going to happen now. They will move from district to district. That’s not going to get them housed.”

But area residents said they were pleased.

Goldberg “has kept her promise and I think it’s incumbent on us as constituents to thank her,” said Mary Ann Kuk, recording secretary of the Silverlake Residents Assn., one of the groups that met with Goldberg about the problem.

Michael Shanahan is grateful for Goldberg’s actions, but wonders if the no parking signs will just send the homeless back into the neighborhood.

“It seems to be working,” Shanahan said. “There are some vehicles there, but not nearly the quantity that we had before. I still have a wait-and-see attitude.”

When neighbors first complained about the homeless parked on the street outside their windows, Goldberg ordered the no parking signs removed along a deserted stretch of Riverside Drive, giving them a legal place to park away from residences. Neighbors then complained about human waste and trash, so Goldberg installed trash cans and portable toilets, said David Hershey-Webb, a Goldberg spokesman.

But anger at the homeless was so strong that at the meeting where the March 31 deadline was announced, the audience cheered, Hershey-Webb said, adding that the sentiment was not shared by Goldberg’s office.

“Some complaints came from residents on Riverside and some from residents of Silverlake that just had to drive by them and didn’t want to see them and felt they didn’t do anything visually for the neighborhood,” said Hershey-Webb. “We were not willing to tell them to just move without trying to provide some alternative.”