DECLARATION OF
EMERGENCY
We hereby declare
Los Angeles is in a state of emergency in regards to homelessness and extreme
poverty due to the severe lack of low, very low, or extremely low-income
housing along with insufficient housing and human services required to sustain
the population suffering from the hardships causing homelessness and extreme
poverty in Los Angeles whereas these emergency conditions do exist in Los
Angeles:
REGARDING HOMELESSNESS
Homeless Statistics from the Institute
for the Study of Homelessness and Poverty, at the Weingart Center
http://www.weingart.org):
§
Approximately
80,000 people are homeless on any given night in LA County while there are
approximately 16,000 shelter beds available.
§
Most homeless people in
Los Angeles are form Los Angeles, Veterans represent around 20% of the homeless
population in Los Angeles and 34% are families.
§
33%-50% homeless people
have serious mental health problems and
§
46% of homeless adults
report one or more chronic health issues (26% reported an acute infectious
condition; 3% reported testing HIV positive; 1% reported having AIDS).
REGARDING
SHELTERS AND SUPPORTIVE HOUSING
Emergency
and Transitional Shelter Beds Statistics (from the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and
Homelessness Fact Sheet http://www.lacehh.org/factsheet2003A.htm)
§
LA County provides
approximately 14,017 shelter beds (153 agencies operating 331 homeless
shelters):
·
3,929 are emergency
shelter beds
·
10,098 are
transitional housing beds
Supportive Housing Statistics (from the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and
Homelessness Fact Sheet http://www.lacehh.org/factsheet2003A.htm)
§
There are 799 units of
permanent supportive housing:
·
545 Shelter plus Care
units;
·
254 for people with
HIV/AIDS
REGARDING AFFORDABILITY AND PERMANENT
HOUSING
City of Los
Angeles 2000 Housing Crisis Taskforce reported: “The City of Los Angeles is in the grip of a profound crisis
in housing affordability”
Out of Reach 2003 (from the National Low Income Housing Coalition http://www.nlihc.org/oor2003/)
reported that 61% of Los Angeles area renter households in 2003 did not meet
affordable requirements for fair market values. (A unit is considered
affordable if it costs no more than 30% of the renter's income.) In Los Angeles-Long
Beach, CA, an extremely low income household (earning $15,090, 30% of the Area
Median Income of $50,300) can afford monthly rent of no more than $377, while
the Fair Market Rent for a two bedroom unit is $1,021.
In February 2004, 1,500 Section 8 vouchers were "suspended" (cancelled) and subsidized low-income housing is at risk.
THE
CITY OF LOS ANGELES DOES HEREBY ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. To supercede any other provision of the Los Angeles Municipal Code, the following activities are authorized:
(a) Persons may sleep overnight in a registered, self-contained motor vehicle parked on a public street for no more than 72 hours:
i. Where both sides of the street abut an industrial zone,
ii. Where both sides of the street abut a commercial zone without store-fronts,
iii. Where one side of the street abuts a commercial [mixed] or industrial [mixed] zone and vehicle is parked on the commercial or industrial side of a street without store-fronts and is parked at least two traffic lanes across from any residential housing,
iv. Where one side of the street has no residential housing [such as the fenced side of a public park, a public facility or other non-residential zoned areas that have no real public entrances] and vehicle is parked at least two traffic lanes across from any residential housing.
(b) Persons may sleep overnight in a vehicle in a parking lot of a church, synagogue, or other religious institution that owns or leases property on which a parking lot and structure containing a place of worship are located, with permission of the religious institution.
(c) Persons may sleep overnight in the back yard of a single-family residence in a residential zoning district, with permission of the owner and tenant of the residence. Not more than one family may sleep in any back yard, and not more than one tent or camping shelter may be used for sleeping in the back yard. As an alternative, but not in addition to sleeping overnight in the back yard, not more than one family may sleep in a vehicle parked in the driveway of a single family residence in a residential zoning district, with permission of the owner and tenant of the residence. For purposes of this section, "family" means persons related by blood or marriage, or close-knit unrelated adults.
(d) Persons may sleep overnight in City, State, County public parking lots, which have sanitary public facilities during the hours that public parking lots remain unused or otherwise closed to the paying public.
Section 2. Los Angeles City and Los Angeles County streets containing restrictive parking signs, signs which conflict with permitted parking areas shall be removed pursuant to Section 1(a) of the Ordinance:
(a) City and County street maintenance agencies will use Community Service Workers or Low-Income Job Agencies such as Chrysalis to identify street signs to be removed,
(b) City and County Street maintenance agencies will issue work order to remove signs in no more than six weeks from the date of each work order.
Section 3. A church, synagogue or religious institution that allows a person or persons to sleep overnight in its parking lot pursuant to Section 1(b) of this Ordinance, and an owner or tenant that allows a person or persons to sleep overnight in a back yard or driveway pursuant to Section 1(c) of this Ordinance:
(c) Shall provide or make available sanitary facilities for the use of the persons sleeping in the parking lot, back yard, or driveway,
(d) Shall not require payment of any fee, rent or other charge for the privilege of using the parking lot, back yard, or driveway as authorized by this Ordinance; and
(e) May revoke permission to sleep in the parking lot, back yard, or driveway at any time and for any reason.
Any person who receives permission to sleep in a vehicle in a parking lot of a church, synagogue or other religious institution or in the back yard or driveway of a residence as provided in this Ordinance shall leave the property immediately after permission has been revoked.
Section 4. The City of Los Angles will hereby negotiate with and request funding from Federal, State, County, City, or private agencies managing public parking lots and will act to provide a reasonable number of spaces for vehicles and campsites according to lot size and estimated numbers of homeless persons associated with the total population in area, town, or district of the public lots pursuant to section 1(d), where:
(a) The City of Los Angeles will act to provide access to all Federal, State, County, and City lots with existing sanitary facilities within a time period of no more than two months,
(b) The City of Los Angeles will act with the assistance of Federal, State, County, or private agencies to provide portable sanitary facilities in all public parking lots without existing sanitary facilities and furthermore provide access to such lots within a time period of no more than four months,
(c) The City, County, State, Federal, or private agencies shall not charge homeless persons for overnight parking in public parking lots,
(d) City officials or public lot management may revoke permission to sleep in a public parking lot for reasons of proven criminal activity in those lots,
(e) The City, County, State, Federal, or other private management agencies managing lots shall seek outreach services from traditional and non-traditional sources for persons sleeping overnight in public parking lots in order to facilitate needs assessments, regular nutrition, State or County funded financial and medical benefits and other needed services,
(f) The City of Los Angeles shall seek traditional and non-traditional funding to provide special needs for this population, such as emergency vehicle repairs, ticket or licensing assistance, and sanitation dumping provisions for self-contained motor homes,
(g) The City, County, State, Federal, or private management agencies will provide, though job agencies such as Chrysalis or Community Service Workers, the needed maintenance or security for nighttime use of public parking lots and sanitary facilities.
Any person given permission to sleep in a vehicle or camp in public parking lots shall leave the public lot prior to regular business hours with the exception of vehicles paying the regular and reasonable fee for daily or monthly vehicle parking in such lot.
Section 5. This Ordinance and the allocation of legal spaces for homeless people to sleep should be used as an opportunity to assess needs and create solutions to homelessness, but shall not be used to violate the civil or human rights of homeless people.
Section 6. This Ordinance shall remain in effect until feasible alternatives to homelessness exist and the rate of homelessness in Los Angles County decreases to a similar number as existing emergency shelters.
Section 7. That the matters contained herein concern the public health, welfare and safety and therefore, an emergency is hereby declared to exist, and this Ordinance shall become effective immediately upon its passage by the City Council.