Los Angeles City Council is divided over whether banning street camping should be extended to schools in the Los Angeles area.
Councilman Joe Buscaino proposed an amendment which would declare schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District as "sensitive areas" where homeless encampments would not be allowed.
"This new ‘no camping’ ordinance would create a buffer, 500 foot ‘no camping zone around every public school in the city," he said.
Buscaino said the ordinance is more about protecting the kids, not arresting the homeless.
"No one here is saying we’re going to arrest homeless people and say I’ve cleaned a number of my encampments," he said. "I don’t have large encampments in my district today because we connected people to services and housing."
While Buscaino received support from colleague Paul Kortez, Councilman Mark Ridley Thomas is opposed. Ridley Thomas, the chair of the Council's Homelessness and Poverty Committee, said the ban is a rejection of the Council's desire for the ordinance to focus on getting the homeless into shelters.
It's not clear if any of the proposed amendments to the ordinance will be approved by the council before it goes into effect on Sept. 3rd.