City Council okays $2 million to manufacture and post sign
By Dolores Quintana
Los Angeles’ anti-encampment law is now in place and City Council recently voted 11-2 to spend $2 million dollars to manufacture and post signs to notify unhoused individuals that an area is off limits to them to sleep or otherwise occupy as stated in the newly updated section of the Municipal Code 41.18. LA City Councilmembers Mike Bonin and Nithya Raman were the two dissenting votes.
“Colleagues, when I first heard that the City Council was going to spend $2 million out of homelessness funds for signs to say `you can’t sit, sleep or lie here,’ I actually didn’t think it was serious. I thought that someone was parodying the Council or somebody was spreading a mistruth to make the Council look bad,” Bonin said.
Both the Pacific Palisades Community Council (PPCC) and the Brentwood Community Councils have sent letters to Council member Bonin asking that he comply with their desire for enforcement of the ordinance.
“Other residents represented by responsive Councilmembers throughout Los Angeles are now being afforded the protections provided by the ordinance,” the letter states. It goes on to say that: “Your constituents, in contrast, are forced to do without these protections because you disagree with and/or misconstrue the ordinance and, now that it’s been enacted, refuse to implement in CD 11 the pre-enforcement procedures that Sec. 41.18 authorizes,” read the PPCC letter.
As of now, the $2 million would be spent on the estimated number of signs needed, as noted by the City’s Administrative Officer and the City’s Chief Legislative Analyst, namely 20 new signs and five replacement signs. Currently, the LA City Council has approved 79 out of 116 requests for enforcement of Ordinance 41.18. Council members Raman and Bonin have so far refused to enforce the ordinance in their respective districts.
