West Hollywood shopping center installs chirping device to discourage homeless from camping out. Will it work?
- Share via
- A West Hollywood shopping center has installed a device known as the BlueChirper to deter homeless people from hanging out in a stairwell.
- The device emits a loud chirping sound and flashing blue lights when anyone walks past.
Some customers walking out of the West Hollywood Trader Joe’s wear annoyed looks on their faces, and it has nothing to do with rising grocery prices.
The source of the irritation is a small blue box installed in a stairwell leading to the market, the latest tactic used by property owners to deter homeless people from camping out in the area.
The motion-activated device chatters like a loud, anxious cricket as people pass by the shopping center.
“It’s so annoying,” Jeffrey Howard said as he left the market with his groceries. “It’s like an alarm from a smoke detector that you’re just waiting for somebody to turn off.”
Another shopper, Travis Adam Wright, said the device was a poor response to the homelessness problem — and a bad look for West Hollywood — saying it felt like “ a jerk’s first response to people living on the street.”
The blue box joins a growing list of deterrents deployed by Southern California business owners and property managers who have taken matters into their own hands to address the homelessness crisis.
In downtown Los Angeles, a property owner blasted the monotonous children’s song “Baby Shark” to deter camping last month. In 2023, L.A. Metro began blaring loud classical music as part of a pilot program to drive away homeless people from subway stations.
Using such novel tactics to push people away from properties has become a topic of controversy.
Some frustrated merchants seem willing to do anything they can, within the law, to persuade people who they say are bad for business to move along.
Advocates for the unhoused call such measures inhuman and say they do nothing to solve the larger homelessness problem.
Metro’s classical music experiment — which included piano sonatas, symphony orchestra pieces and concertos as well as floodlights — sparked concerns as well as praise. Metro officials defended the tactics, saying the music was not overly loud or unpleasant. It’s unclear whether it reduced the number of homeless people camping near the station.
City officials often end up having to undo the unique deterrence measures that violate local rules.
Last year, Los Angeles officials ordered the removal of more than a dozen steel planters that had been illegally bolted to the ground in a Playa Vista neighborhood to prevent RV parking , and cited those responsible. A few years ago, there was debate after a property owner installed huge planters on a public sidewalk where homeless people congregated.
As for the box dubbed the BlueChirper, a spokesperson for the city of West Hollywood said a code enforcement officer is scheduled to visit the stairwell to see if the device complies with the local noise ordinance. If there is a violation, the city will recommend alternatives.
West Hollywood spokesperson Joshua Schare said the chirping device is not in line with the city’s response to the homeless population, which includes having nonprofit organizations provide outreach services.
The box emits a racket that is devoid of rhythm. The chirping sound is triggered when anyone or anything passes under the motion-sensing device.
The property management company at the shopping center learned about the device through news stories and installed it several weeks ago. The company said it is testing out the device, but so far the results seem positive.
“We are all cognizant of and concerned about the care of our homeless population,” Investors’ Property Services President Robert Warren III said via email. “On the other hand, we have a responsibility to work to provide clean and safe access to and throughout this shopping center.”
Don’t we all want better for all people who are this impoverished? Los Angeles cannot thrive if there is one community of people safely in homes and another forced onto the sidewalks.
The chirper represents one of the not-so-subtle ways property owners and others are making public places feel unwelcome to the unhoused.
Armrests protruding from the middle of a bus bench or park bench are an understated way of keeping people from lying down, said Esther Margulies, a professor at the USC School of Architecture and Dornsife Spatial Sciences Institute.
Margulies said she understands the frustration property owners feel when people are trying to seek shelter around their buildings. But she said devices like the chirper represent the private sector trying to solve the problems that should be addressed by local government.
“By creating these kinds of hostile elements that take people away from shelter or just move them around, we’re not treating the root cause,” Margulies said. “We are diminishing and demeaning the quality of our public environment, because we’re responding to this social and economic problem without treating the cause.”
The latest data show there were 75,312 homeless people in Los Angeles County in January 2024, roughly 200 fewer than in the previous year, but about 6,100 more than in 2023.
In March, Los Angeles County supervisors approved a $908-million budget for homeless services, including the first rollout of funding under the Measure A sales tax intended to address the city’s homelessness problem.
Some Santa Monica residents are protesting two new Waymo charging stations using unconventional means, including ‘Stacking the Waymos.’
The BlueChirper retails for $400 and was devised out of frustration.
Inventor Stephen McMahon first deployed it outside his Santa Monica condominium complex storage area after a break-in and a neighbor with her infant daughter was assaulted by two men.
McMahon initially proposed the solution to his homeowners association board to deter trespassers. Now the retired director of photography is fielding orders for the BlueChirper after teaching himself how to make a circuit board that can emit the annoying sound and flash a blue light.
He says the device works as intended at his condo complex.
The majority of sales are from women younger than 40 who like the “non-aggressive aspect” of the device, McMahon said.
He wishes he didn’t have to resort to this tactic, but feels there has been little done to address the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles County.
“I don’t want to punish anybody. I just want them to go somewhere else,” he said.
In West Hollywood, merchants say the device has managed to deter people from camping in the stairwell that leads to Santa Monica Boulevard and several eateries.
The chirping is hardly noticeable at a nearby pizza restaurant with the doors closed. But four businesses away at Waxology Weho, employee Roxanne Moreno said she can hear the sound and finds it embarrassing that this is the solution used to address the homelessness problem in the area.
“These people are patrons too and this comes across as another step to criminalize homelessness,” Moreno said. “What is the end goal for all of this?”
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
John Orr was a renowned fire investigator who was also a prolific arsonist, and whose thinly veiled novel helped to convict him. In this episode we hear from the fire captain who first suspected him—and from Orr himself.
Tom Girardi was a legal legend—until he was found guilty of stealing millions from his own clients. Host Madison McGhee and pop culture commentator Kiki Monique unpack how his downfall became a Real Housewives scandal, and what Erika Jayne may or may not have known. Plus, L.A. Times reporter Harriet Ryan joins to share how she helped bring Girardi’s crimes to light.
Sammy Roth visits America’s second-largest nuclear plant, Arizona’s Palo Verde Generating Station, and sits down with three experts to explore the pros and cons of atomic energy.
