Editorial: Westwood Neighborhood Council must recognize rights of the homeless
By Editorial Board
May 21, 2015 1:09 a.m.
Los Angeles has one of the highest concentrations of homeless people in the United States, rising 12 percent over the last two years.
Westwood community leaders need to take heed of the systemic issues that cause homelessness and treat the approximately 60 neighborhood residents living on the streets as human beings rather than as problems that need to be expelled.
Unfortunately, recent actions by the Westwood Neighborhood Council suggest they are unprepared to do that. At its May 13 meeting the Westwood Neighborhood Council voted to send a letter of disapproval for CA SB 608, known as the Right to Rest Act.
The bill, introduced in the legislature earlier this year, would provide people experiencing homelessness the right to use public spaces without fear of being harassed by law enforcement.
The council voted to send a letter of disapproval to state lawmakers, asking them to redraft the proposal.
The legislation has since been tabled and the letter is on hold, but the initial vote indicates a willingness to use bureaucracy as a barrier to respecting the fundamental rights of Americans – homeless or otherwise – to freely use public spaces.
Instead of sending a “not in my backyard” message, the Westwood Neighborhood Council should compose a recommendation to Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Koretz reaffirming the right of all people to use public spaces in Westwood without discrimination based on housing status.
The Right to Rest Act and similar bills do not claim to solve the issue of homelessness in the state. But they ensure people experiencing homelessness are treated with the same decency and respect that we all expect from our government.
The homeless population represents around 0.1 percent of the 56,000 people that live in Westwood. Homelessness is not a major endemic issue in the area, but the attitude seeking to exclude human beings from the right to lie down for a night of rest is.
The Westwood Neighborhood Council must acknowledge that basic human dignities supercede aesthetic business appearances. It should support these residents’ right to use public benches and parks to rest.
This is particularly true in terms of the current use of metal barriers on local benches, which prevent people from using them to sleep on.
In addition to rescinding its vote to send the letter, the Westwood Neighborhood Council should take measures to remove these bars on local benches to allow men and women the right to lie down on them for a night’s sleep.
When neighborhoods focus on eradicating their homeless populations, they often end up ignoring the humanity of the people implicated. If we really want to help the homeless populations in our communities, we must start by upholding their right to use public spaces.
