24 fires a day at L.A. homeless encampments a growing crisis, 54% of all fires LAFD respond to

[Demovictory9]

The fire began at 3 a.m., quickly destroying the clapboard bungalow two blocks from Venice Beach. The tenant was away for the night, but her dog, Togo, succumbed after his howls of panic and pain left helpless neighbors with a memory they can’t forget.

While arson investigators have yet to determine a cause in the April 20 blaze, traumatized neighbors quickly linked it to a rash of fires in Venice’s growing homeless camps.

“We may never know for sure what happened,” next-door neighbor Francesca Padilla wrote in an impassioned email to dozens of city officials. “What we know for sure is that around my home and the school across the street from it there are people cooking on sidewalks and RV kitchenettes, burning fires to keep warm, using generators for electricity, living out of their cars, smoking and using drugs in makeshift shacks and tents.”

The angst in Venice is part of a widening tableau of fear, anger and tragedy that has become an everyday consequence of homelessness across Los Angeles.

As the number of tents, makeshift shelters and campers on Los Angeles streets has surged, so has the scourge of fire. In the three years since the Los Angeles Fire Department began classifying them, fires related to homelessness have nearly tripled. In the first quarter of 2021, they occurred at a rate of 24 a day, making up 54% of all fires the department responded to.

https://news.yahoo.com/24-fires-day-surge-flames-120009728.html

[chowder66]

1. There have probably been about 10 fires in the last few months about 500 ft and around the corner

from where I live in Hollywood. 4 of them within the last 2 weeks. It's horrifying.
I typically can smell the smoke or will hear the sirens and helicopters so I jump on Citizen and there will be video of a tent up in flames. I wonder if everyone is okay. Of course there are commenters on Citizen saying crass and horrible things with a rare person actually wondering if the homeless are okay.

It's sad and scary all at once.

[Demovictory9]

2. That is scary. Lived in LA for decades...never so much sidewalk camps as now

[chowder66]

7. They cleared out parts of Skid Row downtown when they revitalized it.

A lot of those people were spread out over the city.
Then they revitalized Hollywood and that brought the homeless and some of the riff-raff here. There's more crime in the area so it's been a double-whammy.

When I say riff-raff I mean opportunists that have been exploring our neighborhoods and then go back to their own neighborhoods after committing crimes. It's the worst I've ever seen it and I've lived in Hollywood for most of my time here. Around 30 years.

At one point you would barely see homeless people around here. They were hard to spot as were street workers.
It was so stark it felt odd. Never really knew what that was all about but this was prior to and during the revitalization of Hollywood.


On edit: the revitalization of Hollywood didn't necessarily bring the homeless, they were already moving in from Skid Row.

[Raine]

3. Just wait till the official fire🔥 season arrives

it's going to be devastating. Where I live the homeless have encampments up in the dry brushy hillsides.

[Demovictory9]

6. I would see homeless heading into the brush of the sepulvada pass

And the hills flanking the hollywood freeway

[ansible]

4. The crazy homeless people here have completely ruined my city now

No one wants to take action at all, it's so fucked up

[chowder66]

9. It's being worked on but it's complicated which makes it problematic.

There is a push to look at land use laws and vacated buildings. And there's the perpetual issue of home prices.
The budget surplus is going to be used for housing but that doesn't do a lot of good if people are unwilling to be housed. So there's that.

Then there is the issue of getting developers to build affordable housing coupled with the problem of neighborhoods that don't want to see homeless in their area but go to local meetings to stop any housing for the homeless near them. Some want to put the homeless in industrialized areas that have no healthcare facilities, grocery stores, etc.

[jmbar2]

5. damn, so depressing

[Deacon Blue]

8. Similar Problem in Austin

Many fires daily. One consumed a historic, 140 year-old bell tower adjacent to a very densely populated encampment.

It is very sad. Not sure what the solution is…

[Demovictory9]

13. and Trump said it was just a problem in blue states

[Demobrat]

10. Wow. I lived around there many years ago.

There was always open drug use and panhandling on Venice beach but nothing like that. It must be very scary at night.

[Demovictory9]

12. yes, Venice beach has undergone a drastic change.