HIDDEN HOMELESS: Looking for Solutions

Brian Deming was ecstatic over what he viewed as a victory.

Finally, they are doing something about it, he said.

Workers wearing hardhats, large trucks loaded with heavy brush, the buzzing sound of chainsaws, the empty lot on Sunset Boulevard and Marquez Place was alive again but not with the sound of drunk squabbles or the smell of transient campfires.

The lot, the former site of the historic Bernheimer Gardens, was beginning to look cleared. Bags of trash, fabric from tents, empty bottles, the encampments that once littered the peaceful lot were gone.

“Look, remember this?” Deming asked, pointing to a camp once shrouded within the heavy brush and virtually invisible to those driving or walking by.

Gesturing to an opening between two palm trees created by the brush clearance, Deming pointed to the Pacific Ocean.

“They can’t hide in that,” he said.

What they are doing here is unprecedented, he said.

Deming said he had never seen a cleanup of this magnitude by the Pacific Palisades Bay Club, an entity representing the group that owns the property.

TAKING ACTION

The work started Monday, Sept. 8, and lasted until Friday, Sept. 12; the catalyst came in July when the fire department gave the property owner a citation and a warning to clear the lot, Deming said.

When the owner failed to respond, the Los Angeles Fire Department hired contractors to come in and do the job.

The job, estimated to cost more than $25,000, would be billed to the owner, but the fix is only temporary, said Senior Lead Officer Michael Moore.

On Thursday, Sept. 11 Moore was sitting inside Sotheby’s conference room off Via de la Paz with four other high-ranking police officers, including Capt. Evangelyn Nathan and Senior Lead Officer Christopher Ragsdale, who once worked the Palisades beat but now covers Westwood.

On the conference table on speakerphone, Deputy City Attorney Claudia Martin listened intently as Deming explained about all the problems residents at Pacific Garden Apartments have had because of transients camping on the historic lot, which has remained undeveloped for decades because of geological issues.

Workers would remain on the Bernheimer lot one more day, but everyone in the room knew the transients would be back.

“They will return,” said Ragsdale, who had also dealt with the troublesome lot while serving in the Palisades.

LEGAL BATTLE

Deming and his neighbors from Pacific Gardens Apartments had placed 10 “No Trespassing” signs, posted in cement, at entry points throughout the property, but they had been ignored for the most part, he said.

The signs were there to make arrests easier for police, he added.

Moore said the trespassing signs help, but they need to cite the proper ordinance.

Police already have an authorization letter from the owner to enter the property and make trespassing arrests.

Deming said an iron fence around the property may help to keep transients out for good.

“We have to file a nuisance abatement lawsuit,” said Martin, who is part of special unit of the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office that deals with transient issues.

Police need to document every single incident and arrest on the property, she added. The more arrests and calls logged, the stronger the nuisance abatement lawsuit.

Authorities may actually have more leeway on private property since a series of lawsuits related to seizure of homeless people’s property has tied the city’s hands.

City workers are prohibited from removing or destroying unattended property left by the homeless on public areas unless they pose a health and safety threat. The injunction requires city workers to post a 72-hour notice on the property.

If no one shows up to claim the belongings, the property is removed but must be stored for 90 days before being destroyed. In L.A.’s Skid Row, warehouses are already filled.

Police may have more leeway on private property, Deming said.

A NEW CAMP DEVELOPS

On a hillside below the Huntington neighborhood near Chautauqua, a large campground of 60 transients has already been established, according to neighbors and police.

“That property belongs to Caltrans and is tricky to get to,” Moore said. “We’d have to close one lane on Pacific Coast Highway to reach it.”

LAPD is asking residents to report every single problem witnessed with transients by calling (877) 275-5273.