"In
2011, I became homeless because I couldn't afford my rent and I
ended up living in tents or bushes or whatever. Then, I got into
an RV and that's more like a home kind of thing. At least there
is shelter," said the 37-year-old, whose mobile home is one of
several hundred parked on Burbank's Forest Lawn Drive across
from Warner Bros Studios.
"It's home now but I would like to be in an apartment," she
said.
Nearly a third of Californians are living in or near poverty,
with poverty in Los Angeles County the highest in the state,
according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
Los Angeles has some of the highest housing costs in the country
with its stock of affordable housing unable to meet demand.
The thousands of parked vehicles have disgruntled neighbors,
however, according to Los Angeles City Councilwoman Traci Park.
“We're outside of one of our local schools, and you can see
there are RVs. They have been parked here without moving for
years,” said Park, from the popular Venice neighborhood. “Their
belongings are impeding the sidewalks and, you know, families
with children need to be able to access this area to get to
school."
She called the scale of the problem “immense”. Estimates vary on
how many people are living in vehicles but most agree the figure
is at least several thousand.
A motion introduced by Park to regulate the sale and leasing of
RVs and vans that are used for housing was approved unanimously
by the Los Angeles City Council on Aug. 30. Now, Los Angeles
County is following her lead, considering similar restrictions.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority estimates over
75,000 people were unhoused this year in Los Angeles County,
46,000 of which are within the City of Los Angeles.
(Reporting by Omar Younis; Writing by Christina Anagnostopoulos;
Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
![](column_spacer.png)
|
|