Venice Homeless Shelter Draws Furious Neighborhood Opposition

VENICE, CA — Los Angeles voters have approved more than $1 billion for housing to tackle the city’s homeless crisis, making the problem more a matter of will than means.

The problem was on display in Venice Wednesday night where hundreds of residents jeered Mayor Eric Garcetti, protesting his proposal to build a 154-bed homeless shelter on an abandoned Metropolitan Transportation bus yard on Sunset Boulevard.

Waving signs and chanting, “Venice says no,” the crowd made it clear they didn’t think a shelter would be a good idea for the community. Though Venice famously struggles with a large homeless population, residents don’t feel a large shelter a couple blocks from the beach is the solution. As Garcetti plans to put a shelter in every council district in the city as part of his Bridge Home program, he’s likely to get similar receptions across the city.

In Venice, as in neighborhoods such as Sherman Oaks, residents said they are worried such shelters could attract crime and hurt property values.

Many worry that the proposed shelter is too close to schools. Others said that putting a large shelter in a highly desirable neighborhood would simply attract more homeless people to the area.

“There is a difference between homeless people who are down and out and transients who want to come to the beach to party,” longtime resident Dara Lasky said, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Marie Hammond told the mayor that longtime residents have endured graffitti and stolen bikes and also sorts of petty crimes committed by transients. Building a large shelter in the area would just increase the crime, she said.

“The easy thing to do politically is to walk away,” the newspaper quoted the Garcetti. “We can’t afford to walk away from homelessness.”

For his part, Councilman Mike Bonin cast the issue as a moral one.

"I asked people around the district where should we provide relief from encampments with this program and overwhelmingly the answer was Venice," Bonin told LAist/KPCC in August. "People have died on the streets in my district and that's happening on my watch, so I think I have a moral responsibility."

According to the LAist, several people spoke out in favor of the project, but they were outnumbered by opponents.

One supporter admitted that she is homeless and living in Venice

"I clean the beach every morning, I clean the beach every night, and that's what Venice is supposed to be about, it's community it's love it's diversity, it's peace," she said, according to LAist.

The project is far from a done deal. There will be additional public hearings, an environmental review and a public comment period before the City Council ultimately approves the project. In the meantime, city leaders will continue to hold public forums around the city in neighborhoods designated for a shelter.

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