The Los Angeles City Council adopted an anticamping resolution in May that seeks to limit homelessness in Westwood, despite pushback from the North Westwood Neighborhood Council.

The resolution, covered under Council File 25-4118-S5, was introduced by LA City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, whose district includes Westwood and UCLA. The resolution will establish tent-free zones near community fixtures across West LA, including the Westwood Branch Library, Westwood Park and Westwood Gardens Park.

The motion comes amid citywide calls to combat “street homelessness,” with Mayor Karen Bass vowing to address the issue as the 2028 LA Summer Olympics approach. The county’s homeless population currently sits at an estimated 72,308, with approximately 5,040 individuals counted in LA’s fifth district – which includes Westwood – according to the LA Homeless Services Authority’s yearly homelessness count.

The NWWNC has supported efforts taken to combat homelessness in recent years, including a 2024 resolution also introduced by Councilmember Yaroslavsky, which helped identify available shelter for people experiencing homelessness who are under threat of relocation.

UCLA has also been part of the response, including through the creation of the UCLA Unhoused Task Force in 2024. The task force seeks to “explore interventions to address safety and operational issues associated with unhoused non-affiliates on and adjacent to the main campus,” according to its website.

The NWWNC said it recognizes the urgency of the issue but opposed Yaroslavsky’s position several times throughout the process, adding in a June statement that the council member’s resolution is a departure from her earlier position, which identified available shelter, and would not result in any people experiencing homelessness being permanently supported.

“Our city is facing a homelessness crisis, one which city leaders will readily admit that we do not yet have the resources to address,” the statement said.

The resolution was designed to enforce LA Municipal Code Section 41.18, which was created to allow local governments to disperse large encampments by criminalizing people experiencing homelessness for residing within regulated distances of schools, libraries and other public places.

Dr. Enrico Castillo, an associate professor of clinical psychiatry at UCLA, said the policy’s dispersal tactics are “ineffective and harmful.”

Castillo added that the NWWNC’s statement was “a brave stand” against measures across LA that have been shown to be unhelpful toward people experiencing homelessness.

Jacob Wasserman, the former secretary of the NWWNC who drafted the statement, said he does not believe the resolution reflects the position of Westwood residents.

“It’s tens of thousands of people that we represent, and that is just ignored,” Wasserman said.

The NWWNC added in the statement that the tactics of criminalization and dispersal of “unhoused neighbors” are not effective in solving homelessness, as it moves people from place to place instead of finding permanent solutions. An approach founded on the specific needs of people experiencing homelessness must be taken instead, it said in the statement.

“If you truly have no money or no resources, you can be at a library,” said Chelsea Shover, an associate professor-in-residence of medicine specializing in health support for people experiencing homelessness. “So when we take steps to make it harder for people to be at the library, that takes away a really important resource.”

Wasserman said ensuring access to these resources should be a priority for Westwood.

“We don’t want them on the streets as much as anybody, but we would rather they’d be somewhere visible where they can get help, especially from all the resources at UCLA,” Wasserman said.

Wasserman also pointed to a 2024 study that shows 41.18 dispersal tactics had led to only two people being permanently housed out of the 1,856 who had been displaced.

The NWWNC quoted 2023 statements from a city council meeting by Councilmember Yaroslavsky in their statement, where she said 41.18 “just … spreads people around. Homelessness has gotten worse in my district,” and “We’re not actually solving the problem.”

The statement went on to say the NWWNC supported Yaroslavsky’s previous position and that the only credible solution was to make more beds and social services available.

Castillo said he recommended the city continue to implement continuum of care services that offer permanent supportive housing to people of the Westwood community who are experiencing homelessness and prevent them from having their belongings confiscated, their medications lost and their access to support networks and community organizations interrupted.

By implementing housing-based solutions and not relying on dispersal, Castillo added that he hopes the cycle of homelessness will stop.

“I would hope that our community does not channel that distress into simply passing along homelessness to another district or another neighborhood,” Castillo said.