Residents unhappy with new homeless housing
West Los Angeles residents and businesses are outraged by proposed homeless housing.
LOS ANGELES — West Los Angeles residents and business owners are unhappy with a proposal to build housing for unhoused residents in the area.
Dozens of people took to the streets to voice their dissatisfaction, rallying against the housing project, which they say will destroy their neighborhood.
“This is a terrible plan and it’s shortsighted,” said Leiana Anderson of the Stop Midvale Pico coalition.
The 33-bed Midvale housing project would be built in a city-owned parking lot on Pico Boulevard at Midvale Street. The city is touting it as a bridge between street homelessness and permanent housing, and members of the Midvale Pico Coalition say they are all for a housing solution but not for a project this small and not in the middle of a business or residential district.
“We fully support the city’s efforts to house the homeless, but we don’t believe this is the best location. In fact, we have found two alternative locations within our district that would house more people and cost less to taxpayers,” another council member told FOX11.
Since the project was announced, the owner of the building next door has been unable to find a new tenant.
“Obviously, there’s been a big economic impact, but we’ve lost all our rental income and we don’t anticipate being able to rent it again, so it’s basically an abandoned building,” Ed Jirrell said.
The building had been in his family for more than 75 years.
The controversial project was approved by the City Council in October. A few months later, a group called Fix the City filed a lawsuit to block the project, alleging that the city illegally used emergency powers to speed up approval of the project. Despite the ongoing litigation, public outcry, and proposed alternative sites, the fence was installed around the proposed site on Monday, marking a step closer to the project becoming a reality.
FOX 11 reached out to Katie Yaroslavsky’s office but did not hear back.
