Los Angeles considers stricter limits on homeless camping

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles city leaders are poised to pass sweeping restrictions Thursday on one of the nation’s largest homeless populations, making it illegal to pitch tents on many sidewalks, beneath overpasses and near parks.

The measure before the City Council is billed as a humane approach to get people off streets and restore access to public spaces, and it wouldn’t be enforced until someone has turned down an offer of shelter. It would severely limit the number of places where homeless encampments have been allowed to grow and become a common sight across the city.

“There are right ways and wrong ways to disrupt the status quo and improve conditions on the street,” Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas, coauthor of the measure, said in a statement. “I am governed by a fundamental position: Before the unhoused are restricted from occupying public space, they should be ... offered a suitable alternative for housing.”

Among other limits, the ordinance would ban sitting, lying, sleeping or storing personal property on sidewalks that block handicap access, near driveways and within 500 feet (152 meters) of schools, day care centers, libraries or parks.

The measure, which was unexpectedly announced at Tuesday's meeting, would replace a more punitive anti-camping proposal. Police would only get involved if there's a crime, Ridley-Thomas said.

An advocate for the homeless said the measure is loosely written to allow broad interpretation for enforcement and will make most of the city off-limits to people living on the street.

“Draconian is definitely the correct word,” said Pete White of the LA Community Action Network. “I think it’s impossible to comply.”

White said that an ordinance that limited where people could park RVs and sleep in cars overnight left little more...