Crews spent time cleaning up homeless encampments at Dockweiler Beach on Thursday morning.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Traci Park organized the cleanup. She told KNX News' Jon Baird, "I am of the opinion that overnight camping should be banned on all of our coastline and our beaches."
The councilwoman believes that unless L.A. gets more county and state resources and takes a tougher stance on the encampments, the tents may never go away.
Lucy Hahn, the co-founder of the non-profit Friends of the Jungle, told KNX News that growing homeless encampments have been a huge problem.
“They've increased the amount of people that have come down in about probably 400% in the past three months,” she said.
A woman who lives in the encampment also spoke with Baird.
“From as far as I know, we got to move our stuff off of the sand and they clean up and then after they're done cleaning up, we come back,” she said. “So I don't know because shouldn't they be giving us somewhere to go or helping us go somewhere? They did it with so many others.”
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A man who says he walks the beach four or five days a week told Baird he has mixed emotions about the cleanup.
“I just want these people to have someplace to go and I don't want to… I would feel much better if they could assure us that they have someplace to go and live,” he said. “I mean nothing from nothing equals nothing.”
This comes a couple of days after officials in Long Beach began efforts to clean up homeless encampments at five parks.
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