Homeless Bill of Rights Passes the CA Assembly Judiciary Committee!

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Dozens of homeless individuals, organizers, and advocates were on hand on April 23 as the Homeless Bill of Rights and Fairness Act (also known as Assembly Bill 5, or AB 5) passed out of the Judiciary Committee of the California State Assembly with at 7-2 vote.

LA CAN sent a delegation up the Sacramento to make sure the voices of Skid Row residents were heard on this important legislation. Amongst other things, the Homeless Bill of Rights would protect homeless people’s right to use public space and engage in life-sustaining activities such as sleeping and resting. It would also create hygiene centers for people who don’t have access to bathroom or basic hygiene needs and protect homeless peoples’ right to personal property and belongings.

However, contrary to many reports (including the ABC 7 clip posted above), AB 5 would not permit anyone, homeless or not, to harass people on the streets or maliciously block sidewalks. Nor would it allow people to urinate and defecate publicly or allow homeless people to harm or interfere with local businesses’ operations.

AB 5 is not about creating special rights. Rather, it is about ensuring equal rights for homeless individuals.

The successful Judiciary Committee vote marked a win for a growing movement. However, we still have a lot of work ahead.  AB 5 now heads to the Assembly Committee on Appropriations, and then, hopefully, to the full assembly by late Spring/early Summer. For more information or to get involved, visit wraphome.org.

Coverage of the Judiciary Committee Vote on AB5:

Associated Press – “Bill says homeless have right to be on the street“
LA Weekly – “Homeless rights Act Says Homeless Can Sleep Outdoors Without Arrest“
Sacramento Bee – “Updated homeless ‘bill of rights’ passes CA legislative committee“
San Francisco Examiner – “S.F. lawmaker’s ‘homeless bill of rights’ passes state Assembly committee“
San Francisco Gate – “Scaled-down homeless rights law advances“

Diverse City-wide Coalition Holds Press Conference to Defeat Community Care Facilities Ordinance

More than 100 organizations from across the City of Los Angeles were joined by numerous faith-based leaders last week to urge City Councilmembers to vote NO on the revised Community Care Facilities Ordinance, which would increase segregation and homelessness in Los Angeles.  The Coalition believes in healthy, safe and diverse communities and that shared housing is a crucial component in ensuring this goal throughout all of the City.  For more information, visit www.stopccfo.org.

View Daily News coverage of the press conference here.

Guess Who Went to CCA Mayoral Candidate Breakfast?

WE DID!

The Central City Association (CCA) has enjoyed years of unchallenged privilege in deciding the fate of Downtown Los Angeles. Gentrification, mass incarceration and outright banishment to ensure massive profits are but a few tools promoted by CCA and used at the expense of longtime low-income residents of Downtown.  Additionally, because they pump massive resources into the Los Angeles political infrastructure, they usually face little to no resistance while they roll out their visions.

While LA CAN does not enjoy a bottomless pit of financial resources like the CCA, we make up for it with people power, resilience, resistance and community-based innovation.  We have successfully pushed back against the CCA’s vision for Downtown for 10 years, including efforts to ensure that low-income housing is preserved and increased, and that everyone’s civil rights are upheld.

We continued this battle yesterday when we showed up to promote our Share the Wealth vision for Downtown and also insist that Mayoral Candidate Garcetti meet with low-income community members, instead of only listening to the CCA’s ideas for Downtown LA.  The CCA’s “Downtown 2020″ plan is racist, classist and exclusionary – focusing on more criminalization and calling for no more affordable housing in Downtown.  Alternatively, LA CAN’s Share the Wealth platform ensures that Downtown is for everyone and that long-time low-income Downtown residents are included in all plans and decisions.

We will present our Share the Wealth vision to Councilmember Garcetti at our upcoming breakfast meeting with him.

LA CAN members posted up at the back door so that all CCA attendees saw and heard our message

…meanwhile, out front…

Residents held a community-based  breakfast complete with street theater and healthy food options.

Returning to the rear exit…

After CCA and BID security made several unsuccessful attempts to remove us from spaces near the back exit…

…Deborah Burton and other LA CAN members held their ground and secured a commitment for a breakfast forum with our community and Councilmember Garcetti.

STAY TUNED…

The August/September Community Connection is NOW AVAILABLE!

Click on the Photo above to read the Community Connection Online.
You can also download a PDF version HERE.

Farmers Field Fast Fact #2!

DEMOCRATICUNDERGROUND.COM Releases Operation Healthy Streets Video

To read the entire story please visit:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002849466

NOW AVAILABLE: May/June 2012 Community Connection!

The May/June 2012 Community Connection is NOW AVAILABLE!

Click on the Photo above to read the Community Connection Online.
You can also download a PDF version HERE.

Message to the City of Los Angeles: Protect Our Health, Clean Our Streets, Don’t Destroy Our Personal Property

The City of Los Angeles continues to play a dangerous game of “legal chicken” with the health of Skid Row residents. Over a number of years, Los Angeles has removed trash receptacles, portable toilets and just about anything that could provide a bit of humane comfort to those marginally housed. The LAPD simultaneously employed a strong-arm approach — taking and destroying items they deemed were “items of comfort”  and insisting that those things make it easier for people to live on the streets.  They forget to add, however, that shelters, transitional housing, and permanent supportive housing is maxed out and literally there is no room at the inn.

Unfortunately this is not a new occurrence in Los Angeles. Dating back to the 80′s Los Angeles has been engaged in the  practice of taking personal possessions, destroying them and  winding up in court as a result. Each time the court has reinforced Constitutional protections and has given Los Angeles clear instructions on how to enforce issues related to health and safety concerns, without illegally taking personal property. The injunction issued by The Honorable Philip S. Gutierrez is no different.

Los Angeles’ response to the recent injunction has been mean spirited and misguided, namely the outright refusal to clean streets and pick-up trash. Community residents have long cleaned Skid Row streets in the absence of consistent cleaning and trash collection. OG’s in Service have long enlisted the support of residents, arming them with colorfully painted trash cans and brooms, in hopes of supplementing the City’s infrequent collection. Residents forced to live on the street also clean their areas and place debris in the reach of skip loaders in the event they actually show up.

But these days they rarely show up. That is until the Department of Public Health showed up and cited the City of Los Angeles for numerous health code violations.

LA CAN Concludes 7-Day Siege at the CCA Headquarters

On Monday, June 4th, LA CAN concluded its 7-Day siege at the Headquarters of the Central City Association with marches, rallying cries and a clear message: “CCA, YOUR COPS WON’T SCARE US AWAY!”

Over the past decade, the CCA, the power business lobby in Downtown LA, has been one of the strongest advocates for increased policing and the criminalization of homelessness and poverty downtown. This has made them one of the major foes of poor and homeless residents who have been fighting to preserve their right to exist in a community that many have called home long before the lofts and art galleries that now line Spring and Main.

This most recent action was planned and executed by LA CAN, Occupy LA, and Occupy the Hood L.A. in response to CCA’s successful push to get LAPD to add 50 additional officers to downtown. This is on top of the over 100 uniformed and undercover cops that came to Skid Row in 2006 as part of the Safer Cities Initiative, which was backed heavily by the CCA.

For 7 straight days and nights, over 50 folks camped out in from the the CCA offices located at 626Wilshire Blvd. In the mornings, the groups rallied, passed out fliers to people on their way to work, and maintained a continual visual presence that let CCA know that residents of downtown will not stand idly by as big business and the LAPD attempts to remove their civil and human rights.

For more photos of the action, you can view a slideshow HERE.

Images, Footage and Coverage of May 10 Action to Stop Police Murders