A resident of the Los Angeles community of Pacific Palisades reportedly filed court papers on Tuesday seeking to stop the city and county from proceeding with a plan to relocate homeless people to residential recreation centers during coronavirus.
The plan, announced last month by L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, has stirred criticism because of concerns that it could expose homeless people, and surrounding communities, to greater risk of infection.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines advise against clearing homeless encampments during the pandemic unless individual housing units area available, given that the virus spreads more easily indoors in “congregate” spaces and that moving homeless people could disrupt their use of existing support services.
In addition, residents of the shelters will be free to come and go as they please, raising concerns about “community spread.”
NBC Los Angeles reported Tuesday:
A Pacific Palisades woman filed court papers Tuesday seeking to stop the city of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County from using the Pacific Palisades Recreation Center as a homeless shelter, saying the decision could increase the number of COVID-19 infections.
Susie Forte Gilman maintains in her still-unofficial Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that putting the homeless in the center, located on Alma Real Drive just three doors from her home, would create a nuisance and that the city and county should be enjoined from going forward with the plan.
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According to Gilman, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on March 18 announced a “dangerously misguided policy” when he said the center would be among various locations citywide where the homeless would be housed.
Placing the homeless in the building would be contrary to current scientific guidelines regarding the spread of COVID-19, and the risk of more virus transmissions would be escalated because no plans are in place to keep the residents from “traveling through or loitering in the neighborhood surrounding the Palisades RC,” according to the plaintiff.
Garcetti has struggled until now to deal with L.A.’s growing homeless problem.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, is available for pre-order. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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