L.A. landlord stops blasting ‘Baby Shark’ tune to drive off homeless following complaints
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An otherwise ordinary commercial building at the corner of 11th and Main streets in downtown Los Angeles captured the attention of Los Angeles officials recently for blasting “Baby Shark” to deter homeless people.
Shalom Styles, owner of Styles Barber Lounge and one of the building’s tenants, said the landlord began playing the song on Thursday over a speaker on Main Street just a few feet from a homeless encampment that’s been in place on the sidewalk for more than a year. The situation marks the latest attempt by property owners to keep homeless individuals from loitering or sleeping in commercial zones, an issue they say threatens business.
“These are thriving businesses, we don’t need to have that stuff over here,” he said of the homeless encampment.
But by Monday, the children’s song — a frequent earworm — was no more. Styles said the landlord told him that police had received complaints about the music and he was at risk of being cited for disturbing the peace. He said the landlord wanted to meet with city officials before agreeing to turn the music off.
The landlord could not immediately be reached for comment. The Los Angeles Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Councilwoman Ysabel Jurado, whose district includes the area in question, said a meeting with the landlord and LAPD had taken place but provided no further details.
“Our housing and homelessness crises impact everyone in this city — as we navigate this, I implore everyone to lead with care and compassion,” Jurado said in a written statement. “My team and I are focused on looking at tackling these issues holistically and plan to create long-lasting solutions to support our unhoused population, but it’s important that as we move through this we don’t lose sight of each other’s humanity.”
It was a sentiment echoed by Dennis Oleesky, chief executive of the Los Angeles Mission, who on Monday announced that it planned to team up with Styles to host an event providing free haircuts and grooming services to unhoused people downtown.
“We know the homelessness crisis has created strain on all sides — for individuals living on the street and for the business owners trying to operate in challenging conditions,” Oleesky said. “We commend Shalom for turning a moment of frustration into an opportunity to serve.”
Oleesky said outreach workers will be at the event to help people who want to get off the street.
“We all see what’s happening downtown and sometimes it feels overwhelming,” Styles said. “This is our way of helping, not just talking.”
Tensions between business owners and the homeless population have grown over the last few years. In 2019, 7-Eleven made headlines when it began playing loud classical music to chase homeless people from its stores. Other businesses have deployed planters and fences.
Although the unsheltered population in the city of L.A. decreased last year from 32,680 to 29,275, and is projected to decline again this year, residents and business owners continue to express frustration with the city’s handling of the homelessness crisis.
Those frustrations reached new levels recently with the findings from a court-ordered audit of Los Angeles homeless services that found the city and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority lacked adequate data systems and financial controls to monitor contracts for compliance and performance.
Then there are the recent investigations by The Times into Skid Row Housing Trust and AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which revealed that the properties managed by the two nonprofits were plagued by heating, elevator and electricity failures as well as vermin infestations.
More than a week ago, tenants from a building providing permanent supportive housing in Westlake filed a lawsuit against the current and former landlords and property managers for creating what they described as “abysmal living conditions.”
Still, city officials maintain progress is being made.
When Styles arrived in L.A. to open his barbershop in 2020, the pandemic stymied his plans. A year later, he said he was able to start cutting hair, but by 2022 he and other barbers at his shop began to have issues with homeless people in the area.
He said the children’s song that the landlord had been playing was an attempt to bring the city’s attention to the homelessness problem in the area.
Nearby, at Rage Ground, where people pay to vent their anger by breaking dishes and smashing cars, at least one homeless man has defecated and urinated outside the business.
Employee Karla Maldonado, 25, said the man also tried to start fires using trash during January’s Palisades and Eaton fires.
“We tried to call 911 but they just hung up on us,” she claimed.
Maldonado said she used buckets of water to douse the flames. She said other homeless people in the alley along the warehouse have stolen brooms and coveralls that she said cost up to $100 each. She estimates at least 20 have been stolen.
Around the corner from Styles’ barbershop was a small encampment where about half a dozen people have been living. Bicycle parts lay in a pile on the sidewalk.
Kenneth Moore, 68, expressed anger and frustration that the business was casting blame on him and others at the encampment for problems that he says have nothing to do with the group.
“If it’s about the break-ins, that’s not us,” Kenneth Moore, 68, said. “We don’t tolerate that over here, we fix bikes to survive.”
Passing through the area with his dog, Billy Copeland, 55, became interested in the group’s conversation over homeless services.
Copeland said a few months ago he was sleeping on a street between Pico Boulevard and 15th Street when cleaning crews came by his block. Fed up, he refused to move.
“All they do is come by and clean up and document where people are,” he said.
Copeland said he didn’t budge until workers could help him access a shelter. He said he’s now at a tiny home in Eagle Rock, awaiting permanent housing.
“That was the only way I could get help,” Copeland said. “I was out here forever, giving my information and all that happened was them coming out to take my stuff.”
Moore and others say they have been waiting to be placed into permanent housing in some cases for more than two years.
A spokesman for LAHSA said an outreach team was at the encampment a month ago. He said some people were placed in interim housing but left. It was unclear where they had gone. LAHSA is expected to return to the encampment on Tuesday.
Moore has grown tired of sitting on a wait list and being shuffled around by the city.
“You think we like living like this?” Moore said. “We don’t.”
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