121 homeless people removed from Southern California encampment
By Vivian Chow,
2024-09-07
County officials removed 121 homeless residents from a Palmdale encampment during several large-scale operations.
The effort, led by L.A. County’s Pathway Home program, was conducted with the help of several local agencies and sheriff’s departments and took place on July 22, July 31, and Aug. 19.
The encampment was located in a remote desert area where homeless residents lived in makeshift structures, tents and dilapidated RVs and vehicles.
Crews from multiple agencies worked to move 121 homeless individuals, with their cooperation, from the encampment and into temporary indoor housing. Workers removed and disposed of 32 vehicles including RVs, cars, trailers, campers and boats.
“This is a humanitarian effort and we’re trying to get people onto a better path,” explained Lt. William Kitchn from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. “The extreme heat and the extreme cold in the wintertime, a lack of access to fresh water — all those things come into play.”
The Palmdale encampment was located in a remote desert area that experienced a scorching heatwave in summer 2024. (Los Angeles County)
Kathryn McMullen and her cat were moved from a Palmdale homeless encampment into safe indoor housing. (Los Angeles County)
A dilapidated RV was among 32 different vehicles that were removed from the Palmdale encampment. (Los Angeles County)
The Palmdale encampment was located in a remote desert area that experienced a scorching heatwave in summer 2024. (Los Angeles County)
Workers gathered at a Palmdale homeless encampment to move 121 residents into safe indoor housing. (Los Angeles County)
Andrea Rymer walks into her room for the first time after moving in from an outdoor homeless encampment in Palmdale. (Los Angeles County)
Kathryn McMullen and her cat were moved from a Palmdale homeless encampment into safe indoor housing. (Los Angeles County)
Around 32 dilapidated vehicles and RVs were removed from the Palmdale encampment. (Los Angeles County)
Workers gathered at a Palmdale homeless encampment to move 121 residents into safe indoor housing. (Los Angeles County)
Workers gathered at a Palmdale homeless encampment to move 121 residents into safe indoor housing. (Los Angeles County)
“This is something that’s been going on for a few years,” said Austin Bishop, Mayor of Palmdale. These [summer heat] conditions are extremely brutal so it’s nice to get them out of these dire conditions which are borderline health and life-threatening.”
The Palmdale effort marks Pathway Home’s largest removal endeavor to date. The county has conducted 19 encampment operations since the program launched in August 2023.
In total, the program has moved 783 homeless people into interim housing and 131 people into permanent housing. Around 496 RVs have been taken off the road.
“These people have been experiencing homelessness for a very long time,” said Kimberly Barnette from the L.A. County Homeless Initiative. “The camps here are a little bit off-grid so it’s sometimes more challenging but our outreach teams have been working tirelessly with the sheriff’s department to make sure [we have] everything we need to properly prepare for these folks to come indoors into the Pathway Home program.”
Multiple agencies and nonprofit organizations helped with the Palmdale operations including:
Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA)
L.A. County Sheriff’s Department and Homeless Outreach Services Team
Mental Health America Los Angeles
LA Family Housing
Valley Oasis
Volunteers of America
L.A. County Department of Mental Health
L.A. County Department of Public Works
L.A. County Department of Animal Care and Control
L.A. County Fire Department
More information about Pathway Home can be found here.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
GHOULISH. lawyers, judges, politicians, and the police truly, do not care about humanity. moving the homeless is more money towards non-profit organizations, jails, alcohol sales, hookers, drug dealers,and the pigs.
Rikki
10d ago
you government should have more important things to worry about should put our tax money to better use rather than waist our taxes like for instance maybe you should see some the housing programs really are and the conditions I'm sure majority of us homeless lived more clean and less infested then the places they house us homeless on the real
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