Business Leader Named to Homeless Aid Panel
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Wednesday named the executive director of a downtown business association to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority board.
Estela Lopez heads the Central City East Assn., which represents businesses and property owners in and around downtown’s skid row. Villaraigosa also has nominated Ramona Ripston, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, to the board. The council is scheduled to consider the mayor’s nominees to the board by the end of the month.
In 1999, while Ripston was director, the ACLU sued the Central City East Assn. and its security contractor, contending they were violating the civil rights of the homeless because they were removing transient people’s personal items from the sidewalk. As part of a settlement, security guards may now take abandoned items to a storage center in the neighborhood, Lopez said.
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