RVs getting cleared from large-scale homeless encampment near Gardena
The area has been targeted by outreach workers for over a year, offering those living along the roadway alternative choices for housing and services.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna called the site a health hazard, with people living in life-threatening conditions.
"As you're going along this street, there is not running water, there's no running toilets and people need to use the restroom, so where is all that human waste going?"
"Not to mention whether it's drug paraphernalia that we find out here – this is not where you want people walking around. It's not a healthy environment," Luna said.
The cleanup is spearheaded by the county's Pathway Home initiative which launched in 2023 and is funded through voter-approved Measure A, the half-cent countywide sales tax earmarked for homeless services.
To date, Pathway Home has taken down 44 encampments, removed 775 RVs, permanently housed 265 people, and moved 1,319 people into interim housing, according to its website.
Officials said those who do not choose to participate in the offerings over the next couple of days will still be forced to leave, the RVs will still be towed away, and the streets and sidewalks will be cleared. It's an effort to return these streets and sidewalks back to the neighborhoods, they say.
"The goal of these Pathway Home encampment removals is to help transition people all at once, all at the same time, either into a motel or if we've done a master lease in an apartment building, to transition them as a community, given the fact that they have been living in a community," Supervisor Holly Mitchell said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
3 days ago
- Fox News
Grenade linked to explosion that killed 3 deputies is missing, officials say
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna announced Friday that one of two grenades found in a Santa Monica townhome complex prior to an explosion that killed three deputies is currently missing. The day before the explosion, members of the sheriff's department's Arson and Explosives Detail assisted Santa Monica police after a resident reported finding "two grenade-like devices" in a storage unit in an underground garage. Luna said the devices were believed to be "inert" after an x-ray but were still transported to the Biscailuz Center Training Academy to be "destroyed and rendered safe." However, according to Kenny Cooper, Special Agent in Charge of the ATF's Los Angeles Field Division, one of the grenades exploded at the training center. He also said that ATF forces and local law enforcement "meticulously examined a radius of over 400 feet" from the blast site. Cooper said the investigation into the second grenade's status is ongoing. Luna denied the possibility that one of the grenades "fell out" between the storage unit in Santa Monica and the training facility, saying that law enforcement is confident that "did not occur." The sheriff did not rule out the possibility of another individual being involved and said his department and partners were investigating anyone potentially linked to the tragedy, though he did not specify how many suspects there might be. "I am not ready to discuss here and now any names of any individuals that may be people of interest or anything of that nature, not yet," Luna told the press. Luna emphasized that the ATF's findings are preliminary but said the agency expects to complete its final analysis within 45 days. The July 18 explosion claimed the lives of Deputies Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus, and William Osborn. The three men were assigned to the Special Enforcement Bureau's Arson Explosives Detail.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
One of the grenades recovered ahead of blast that killed 3 L.A. deputies is missing, authorities say
One of the two hand grenades found in a Santa Monica townhome complex ahead of the deadly blast that killed three Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives is currently missing, authorities said Friday. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has determined that one of the two grenades detonated on July 18, "and one of the grenades is unaccounted for at this time," Sheriff Robert Luna said. "We conducted a thorough search to locate the second device, but we haven't found it yet," he said during a briefing. The ATF, which is investigating the blast, will also assume "full control into investigating the whereabouts of this other device that is missing," he added. According to law enforcement sources, investigators learned one of the grenades was missing when they could only find one of the 'spoons' — suggesting only one grenade had exploded at the scene. The bomb squad retrieved the two hand grenades left behind — apparently by a previous tenant — in an underground parking garage storage unit at the complex at 821 Bay St. on the night of July 17 and took them to the Biscailuz Center Training Academy. The next day, one of the grenades exploded as the technicians were handling them in the parking lot. The blast was the single deadliest incident for the department in more than 150 years, killing department veterans Dets. Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus and William Osborn. Officials searched a boat docked in Marina del Rey on Monday and storage lockers on Tuesday and Wednesday that law enforcement sources told The Times are tied to a person who previously served in the U.S. military. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Solve the daily Crossword
NBC News
4 days ago
- NBC News
Grenade killed 3 Los Angeles sheriff's officials, but second grenade unaccounted for
LOS ANGELES — One of two grenades taken to a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department facility detonated last week and killed three detectives, but the second grenade remains unaccounted for, the sheriff said Friday. The sheriff's officials on the Special Enforcement Bureau's Arson Explosives Detail believed the two military-style grenades they seized from a Santa Monica storage unit on July 17 were inert, but one of them detonated the next day and killed the three men, officials said. A federal investigation has determined that the second grenade remains unaccounted for, Sheriff Robert Luna said. Investigators have used X-rays and searched vehicles and lockers at the East Los Angeles facility, as well as the blast site and facility perimeter, since the explosion, he said. 'We have looked at everything out there that we possibly could,' Luna said. He said the investigation into how the explosion happened was ongoing. 'Right now there's a second grenade, that we're not 100% sure where it's at,' Luna said. The explosion occurred around 7:30 a.m. July 18 at the sheriff's department Biscailuz Training Facility. Killed were detectives Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus and William Osborn, who were all on the Special Enforcement Bureau's Arson Explosives Detail. The day before the explosion, the detail was called to help Santa Monica police after two grenades were found in a tenant storage unit in a building's underground parking garage, Luna said. The explosives detectives 'X-rayed the devices and believed that they were both inert,' Luna said. The devices were taken to the facility to be destroyed and rendered safe, he said. Officials do not believe the second grenade was lost en route from Santa Monica to the training center, Luna said. 'We believe with confidence that did not occur,' he said. Santa Monica is around 20 miles away from East Los Angeles. But if anyone sees what appears to be a grenade, explosive device, or even an unknown object, they are warned not to touch it, and to call 911. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will lead the investigation into the whereabouts of the second device, Luna said. The ATF has also sent its National Response Team to Los Angeles. 'I can tell you with clarity from our post-blast examination that we know one device exploded,' ATF Los Angeles Division Special Agent in Charge Kenny Cooper said. "And we have not recovered any evidence from a second device on that scene." Cooper said investigators, including using explosives-detecting dogs, drones, and cherry pickers to look in trees, have "meticulously examined the radius of over 400 feet from the blast seat, multiple times." "Over the abundance of caution, we searched a blast area far greater than the results of that explosive device," Cooper said. There has been changes in how the sheriff's department handles explosives, including treating all devices, even ones believed to be inert, as live, Luna said. Luna said he has called for a thorough after-action review department policies. "We're going to turn this upside down. We're going to look at everything." Luna said.
