A new report found that more than 25,000 complaints made to MyLA311 were about homeless encampments.
Crosstown L.A. found that from July 1 through Sept. 30, 386,000 calls were made to MyLA3211. Almost half of those calls were made by people who wanted something picked up like an old couch or a washing machine. 25,133 of those calls, however, were about homeless encampments, with 2,564 complaints being made in the Westlake area. Koreatown was second with 1,022 calls followed by North Hollywood with 978 calls.
Jon Regardie, the managing editor of Crosstown L.A. told KNX News’ Jon Baird they crunched the numbers from the MyLA311 dataset. He believes the increase in calls could be due to people hearing about the drop in the homeless population.
“In the past, some people may have said, ‘You know, I'm not gonna call, nothing's gonna happen,’” he said. “But if they are actually seeing in the city that tents are being cleared in other places and people on the streets are being housed, they might say, ‘You know what if we actually make calls and complain in this neighborhood, maybe something will finally be done about that encampment down the street from us.’”
Baird spoke with a woman in the Westlake district, who said homelessness in the neighborhood is getting worse.
“There's a lot of trash,” she said. “So many drugs and so many homeless people.”
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A homeless couple in the area, however, told Baird they believe there are fewer homeless people on the streets.
“I mean, they're not all over the place I would say and they're smaller than they were,” the woman said.
Her partner added that a lot of people are being offered help, but not in a timely manner. He said when they were told to move out of a camp, they were not offered any kind of shelter or housing.
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