Venice Stakeholders Association (VSA) opposes the proposed Homeless Person’s Bill of Rights and Fairness Act and sent letter stating such to Assemblyman Mike Gatto who is sponsoring AB5.  Following is the letter and the address.

Venice Stakeholders’ Letter:

Assembly member Mike Gatto

Chair, Assembly Appropriations Committee

State Capitol Room 2114

Sacramento, CA  95814

RE: AB 5 (Ammiano) Homelessness.   NOTICE OF OPPOSITION 

Dear Assemblyman Gatto,

I am writing on behalf of Venice residents to ask you to oppose AB 5, the Homeless Person’s Bill of Rights and Fairness Act.

This misguided legislation will further erode law enforcement’s ability to cope with the “Skid Row West” that has developed in our community.

At the moment we as a community are burdened by a virtual occupation of the Venice Boardwalk and Venice Beach Recreation Area by hundreds of transients of every kind and their tons of possessions, which deny residents and visitors alike the opportunity to utilize this public park.  In addition, we face transient campers that occupy other public spaces at night right next to residences and businesses in several areas of Venice.  The only curb on these encampments growing into 24/7 occupations are the City of Los Angeles’ 12 to 5 AM Beach Curfew and the City’s enforcement of its “No lying, sitting or sleeping” ordinance from 6 AM to 9 PM, as is allowed under the Jones settlement.  These enforcement options would be nullified by AB 5.

Further, we have only in the last year secured the removal of over 220 RVs and campers from our streets with the installation of “No Oversize Vehicle” signage; however, we see that some of this population has returned to our residential streets to live in vans, cars, SUVs and trucks that evade the “No Oversize Vehicle” signage. This results in a continuing loss of parking in our parking-scarce community and the unsanitary use of our alleys and street gutters as latrines.  AB 5 would encourage the “motor homeless” to take up residence on our streets again by making it legal to lodge in vehicles while at the same time Venice residents are denied the right to implement overnight parking restrictions by the California Coastal Commission.  Our community would once again become an urban campground.

This is a matter of quality of life for residents, of public safety and of support for Los Angeles’ still fragile economy.