Homeless encampment moved out of Hollywood

The City of Los Angeles cleared out the homeless encampment in Hollywood, drawing a mix of protests and relief from some of the unhoused residents getting temporary hotel vouchers.

LOS ANGELES (CNS) - An Inside Safe operation in Hollywood brought some 30 unhoused individuals into temporary housing -- resolving a longstanding homeless encampment against the Sunset Sound recording studio, Mayor Karen Bass announced Friday.

According to the mayor's office, the encampment had caused problems for the recording studio owners, as well as other businesses in the area. The Inside Safe operation occurred on Sunset Boulevard in partnership with L.A. City Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez and county Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who both represent the area.

"This week's Inside Safe operations in Hollywood and near Koreatown continue the work to urgently bring unhoused Angelenos inside and save lives," Bass said in a statement. "I want to thank Supervisor Horvath, Councilman Soto- Martinez and our service provider partners for their work to lock arms to address this crisis head on."

Soto-Martinez noted that the people living at this encampment had been there for about five years. They will now be able to move into housing because of Inside Safe, he added.

"With 100% of unhoused residents accepting services and housing through this operation, we are proving that when we do the hard work to find sustainable housing solutions, we can bring folks off the streets for good," Soto-Martinez said in a statement.

Horvath thanked her colleagues for their partnership, as well as the county's Homeless Initiative and Department of Mental Health for their "all- hands-on-deck response" to address the homelessness emergency.

Bass' office highlighted an Inside Safe operation -- the 50th operation -- that took place in Windsor Square near the corner of Sixth Street and Van Ness Avenue.

While L.A. leaders celebrated the Inside Safe operation Friday, several community groups held a news conference in front of Getty House, the official residence of Bass, to highlight what they say are the failures of Inside Safe.

The groups, which include Reclaiming Our Homes, Housing for Juanita, We the Unhoused and J-Town Action, criticized Inside Safe for not effectively providing permanent housing to unhoused Angelenos, and Bass' "ineffective" housing policies. The groups rallied under "United Front Demands," which aims to end all evictions, increase the number of unhoused individuals accessing permanent housing and to urge the implementation of community-led housing solutions.