Homeless encampments in the Hollywood stomping grounds of Beverly Hills have taken a turn for the worse, as a local business owner says there are now naked people deterring customers.
A naked woman was seen just lying out on a leftover couch amid the rubble in one of the encampments in recent days, scaring a business owner who would only refer to herself as Debra.
She says the encampment has hurt her haircare business and made her afraid to work past 6 p.m. along San Vicente Boulevard, just south of the Beverly Center.
‘I have a nice clientele, but now my clientele is getting to the point where they just don’t feel comfortable,’ Debra, who has been in the area for two decades, said.
She’s begging city officials to take action to stop her from losing any further business.
Homeless encampments in the Hollywood stomping grounds of Beverly Hills have taken a turn for the worse, as a local business owner says there are now naked people deterring customers
‘I saw the couch one day out there and I think, ‘Oh my God,” she told ABC7. ‘The next day, I came back and see she’s all over the couch and she’s just naked. She was crying. I felt bad for her, you know?’
‘I wanted to like give her something to cover up but I felt like if I do the little things, then I’ll have everyone coming and asking for help.’
‘My home is within walking distance of these encampments,’ said Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, whose district includes Debra’s business, in a statement.
‘I walk or drive past this neighborhood almost everyday with my three children. What these small businesses and the surrounding communities have had to endure is unacceptable.’
Debra has said she’s been unable to get the city or any of its officials to help.
‘My staff and I have been doing everything we can to manage the situation while working hard to locate housing and services,’ Yaroslavsky added.
Spiraling homeless in Los Angeles means that vagrant encampments risk spilling into the hallowed area.
Santa Monica Boulevard is the dividing line between the Hills – where the median house price is $3.5million – and nearby Beverly Grove where clusters of tents have sprung up amid the department stores and green parklands.
A naked woman was seen just lying out on a leftover couch amid the rubble in one of the encampments in recent days, scaring a business owner who would only refer to herself as Debra (pictured)
She says the encampment has hurt her haircare business and made her afraid to work past 6 p.m. along San Vicente Boulevard, just south of the Beverly Center
Debra has been begging city officials to take action to stop her from losing any further business
Spiraling homeless in Los Angeles means that vagrant encampments risk spilling into the hallowed area
Photos taken on Tuesday reveal tarpaulins, shopping carts, mattresses and loose bedding next to busy junctions and on the sidewalks of the wealthy suburb.
The scenes were captured along San Vicente Blvd, near the upscale Beverly Center shopping mall where celebrities including Victoria Beckham, Paris Hilton and Hailey Bieber have all been known to shop.
An estimated 40,000 people are homeless in the city of Los Angeles, which has a population of nearly 4 million people.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority estimated there were around 70,000 people experiencing homelessness in the wider Los Angeles County in 2022, a four percent increase since 2020.
In January the affluent Sherman Oaks neighborhood, just north of Beverly Hills made national headlines after three people died on its streets in just one week.
Homeless encampments are becoming increasingly common near Beverly Hills, one of LA’s most affluent neighborhoods
Pictured is a homeless encampment near Beverly Hills on April 11, 2023
Tents are pictured scattered along the sidewalk in Beverly Grove, near Beverly Hills, along with bicycles wheelchairs and loose bedding
There are no certain statistics on homelessness in Beverly Hills, but in a report seen by local paper the Beverly Hills Courier, city manager Nancy Hunt-Coffey wrote that it ‘seems to be increasing’.
Last year a number of residents in the neighborhood gave testimony to the city council on their experiences of homelessness as part of a discussion to address the escalating issue.
‘Many of my peers are considering moving because they consider the situation hopeless,’ said Amy Conroy, who said she is afraid to let her children play outside.
Recently elected Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass ran a campaign on claims she was going to address the growing homeless crisis in Los Angeles.
She tweeted about the Sherman Oaks deaths at the time, writing: ‘This is exactly why I’ve declared a state of emergency. Successfully confronting the homelessness crisis is a matter of life and death.’
The leading cause of death among homeless people in Los Angeles is drug overdoses, other leading causes include murder and suicide.
According to Beverly Hills City Manager, Nancy Hunt-Coffey, the amount of homelessness in the area is increasing. Pictured: tents in nearby Beverly Grove
In the center of junction in Beverly Grove, near Beverly Hills, tents and tarpaulins have been set up by some of LA’s homeless population
Between 2016 and 2021, fentanyl overdose deaths in Los Angeles County increased more than ten-fold, between 2019 and 2020, they increased 149 percent from 462 to 1,149, and were up 31 percent in 2021 to 1,504.
Speaking about the homeless deaths in Sherman Oaks, Ken Craft of advocacy group Hope of the Valley, told ABC Los Angeles: ‘What we do see, unfortunately, is an increase in fentanyl on our streets which has caused a higher level of overdoses.’
Bass told a conference in January that affluent residents in her city don’t care about homeless people and just want to see them moved on or arrested.
She said she intends to get over 17,000 homeless people into housing in her first year through a mix of interim and permanent facilities.
Similarly California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last month that the state is hoping to cut homelessness by 15 percent in just two years and committed to providing 500 small homes in the city to achieve that.
‘In California we are using every tool in our toolbox – including the largest-ever deployment of small homes in the state – to move people out of encampments and into housing,’ Newsom said.
‘The crisis of homelessness will never be solved without first solving the crisis of housing – the two issues are inextricably linked.’
A homeless person is seen napping on a patch of grass in a park on the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and Crescent Dr.
A homeless man sits on a public bench in Beverly Grove, near Beverly Hills on April 11, 2023
Some residents of wealthy Beverly Hills told the city council that they were considering leaving as they didn’t feel safe allowing their children to play outside
Los Angeles city council member Joe Buscaino has complained that kids in his city have to ‘step over needles’ and ‘human waste’ on their way to school due because of those crashing out in residential areas.
‘No child in America should be afraid to walk to school, and what we have found in Los Angeles is kids are afraid to walk to school,’ the Democrat said in a television interview late last year.
‘They tell their parents they have to step over needles, human waste, and deal with individuals unfortunately suffering from psychotic behavior – right next to their playground area.’
Initiatives have sprung up to help deal with the crisis, including CICRLE, active in West Hollywood, which aims to move individuals experiencing homelessness off the streets and into housing.
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