Why fewer tents in Venice may not mean fewer unhoused people

Some tents have disappeared from Venice streets and beaches, but that doesn’t mean there are fewer people experiencing homelessness in the coastal neighborhood.

A recent LAist survey asked people to share what they were seeing in their neighborhood when it came to homelessness. Some respondents said they'd seen fewer encampments in Venice over the past year and a half, but that homelessness was still a serious problem in their community.

“I see far fewer camps, I feel a bit safer,” said Jen McGowan, a Venice resident. “I hope people have been given safe housing.”

April Motola, who has lived in the Venice area for 25 years, said there appear to be fewer encampments along Rose Avenue, Hampton Drive and Flower Avenue, but she guessed that unhoused people may have just moved to other parts of Los Angeles.

“Even though it has improved in my neighborhood, [it] doesn’t mean the whack-a-mole approach is really making a difference,” Motola said.

Mary-Jane Wagle said it appeared that encampments had been cleared in Venice through Inside Safe, the mayor’s motel shelter program , but it’s not a permanent solution.

“Some unhoused people slowly come back but it feels as if in smaller numbers,” said Wagle, who is a member of LAist's board . "I fear that unhoused individuals and families from this area are being forced to move elsewhere, rather than making an effort to create affordable supportive housing in this area."

A study released last month by the RAND Corporation seems to support those observations. The study found that after city authorities cleared encampments last year, there was a temporary drop in homelessness in Venice, Skid Row, and Hollywood that lasted two to three months.

The study also noted that the number of people living in Venice without any shelter, like a tent or a car, jumped to 46% of the total population in 2023. That’s up from an average of 20% in 2021-2022.

“Around Venice, we saw those numbers [of unhoused people] rebound,” said Jason Ward, co-director of the RAND Center on Housing and Homelessness. “And we saw that a lot more people seem to be just finding someplace to lay down at night and go to sleep without a tent.”

City clears encampments in Venice

A walk along the Venice Beach boardwalk this week revealed there were many unhoused people seeking out shade or pushing carts along with their belongings, but only a few tents and no large encampments.

A drive through the neighborhood showed a similar situation. Plenty of RVs were parked along city streets and a few tents were pitched down back alleys. Signs reading “special enforcement and cleaning zone” were posted on lampposts across the neighborhood, warning that the city would remove any tents put up during daylight hours.

Four major encampment clearings took place in Venice during the course of the RAND study. One was an Inside Safe operation run by the Mayor’s Office in 2023 that moved 106 people to motels and provided 26 people with interim housing, according to data provided to the L.A. City Council in April.

Other clearings in Venice have been “ad hoc” events organized by a councilmember, Ward said. Last June, for example, Councilmember Traci Park worked with a local service provider, city homeless services, and city mental health teams to bring 40 people off the street during a “beautification project,” according to a news release from Park’s office.

Several more clearings have taken place in Venice since the RAND study, including one last Friday that focused on a beach encampment near the intersection of Navy Street and Ocean Front Walk.

Homelessness by the numbers

The RAND Corporation, a Santa Monica-based think tank, conducts surveys of unhoused people each year in Venice, Skid Row, and Hollywood. Researchers found that in 2023, the total number of unhoused people in Venice increased only about 5%, compared to a 17% increase from 2021 to 2022.

The study also found that the number of unhoused people without any form of shelter, like a tent, more than doubled last year in Venice. An average of 46% of unhoused survey respondents said they had no shelter in 2023, up from 20% in 2021-2022.

That means that around 400 people are “living at night on the streets unsheltered in every sense of the word,” Ward said.

The increase in unsheltered homelessness may be because local law enforcement has taken a stronger stance against tents, after a pause during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Ward. The RAND study found that 57% of unhoused survey respondents in Venice said law enforcement had forced them to move last year.

Anti-camping laws in L.A.

Local police and park staff are enforcing at least two city laws that limit where unhoused people are allowed to sit, sleep, or camp in L.A.

The first law prohibits sitting or sleeping on the sidewalk within 500 feet of certain areas like schools, day care centers, and libraries. Councilmember Traci Park, who represents Venice, led a 2023 expansion of that law to include the Venice boardwalk, Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, and Linnie Canal Park.

People in Venice received 36 citations for violating the law in 2023. There were seven citations issued in 2022, according to a report recently presented to City Council .

The second city law bans tents on public beaches and parks . Rose, a long-time Venice resident sleeping in her car by one of those parks, said that people who try to camp in her area are asked to leave within half a day by park rangers. Rose declined to give her full name because she feared backlash from local residents.

Supporters of L.A.’s anti-camping laws say they help keep public spaces open and prevent unsafe encampments from forming.

The LAPD said that the city's anti-camping ordinance has had “an overwhelming positive impact on public safety,” in part because it led to a substantial reduction in crimes committed against unhoused people, according to the report presented to City Council.

Opponents say those laws unfairly punish people for not having a home and fail to address the underlying causes of homelessness.

“People who are living outside — they are the ones experiencing the public health and safety threat,” said Eve Garrow, homelessness policy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. “They are not the public health and safety threat.”

Unofficial laws against camping

Police officers also cite other laws, like those against drinking or smoking outside, when making people take down their tents, said Peggy Lee Kennedy of the Venice Justice Committee, an organization that helps unhoused people fight tickets they’ve received for blocking a sidewalk, smoking in public, or similar infractions.

“I don't believe they were created to target unhoused people, but they are used to target unhoused people,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy said she hasn’t seen an increase in the number of tickets issued to people experiencing homelessness since Park took office. But she said she’s seen more police officers in the area threatening to give out tickets if unhoused people don’t move on.

“They tell people, ‘If you don't take your tent down, that we're going to give you a ticket. I'll be back in a half an hour,’” Kennedy said.

Recent policy changes

Cities gained more power to enforce laws against camping after the Supreme Court’s decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson in June.

In a landmark case, the Court ruled that cities can cite, fine, and arrest people for sleeping in public spaces whether or not shelter is available.

A month after the ruling, California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered state agencies and asked cities to start clearing encampments.

Some L.A. leaders have pushed back against the pressure to clear encampments. Mayor Karen Bass said “strategies that just move people along from one neighborhood to the next or give citations instead of housing do not work,” in a statement after Newsom’s policy directive was announced.

Other city leaders have shown they’re willing to change L.A.’s approach.

Hours after the court’s decision in Grants Pass, Park requested a city analysis of L.A.’s anti-camping law and a comparison to similar laws in surrounding cities.

“For too long, Los Angeles has shouldered our region’s response to homelessness,” Park said in a video update on Grants Pass posted to Facebook on Saturday. She mentioned several motions she has introduced to the council to change L.A.’s homelessness policy, like regulating where RVs can park.

Park’s office did not respond to LAist’s requests for comment for this story. A staffer said the council member may be unavailable because of her trip to Paris for the Olympics.

A shrinking number of shelter beds

People sleeping on the streets in Venice don't have any alternative, said Becky Dennison, co-executive director of Venice Community Housing , a non-profit that provides housing services.

The neighborhood's only large shelter, A Bridge Home, which opened in 2020 , is set to close at the end of this year, according to a city spokesperson. That means 154 fewer beds for people experiencing homelessness in Venice.

“If you're unhoused in Venice right now… your options for any kind of shelter or housing are slim to none,” said Dennison.

Efforts to provide more shelter in Venice have come up empty handed so far. The 140 unit Venice Dell housing project, which includes 68 units for individuals and families experiencing homelessness, has stalled — over two years after it was approved by the City Council.

Earlier this month, advocacy group L.A. Forward and three Venice residents sued Park and City Attorney Heidi Feldstein Soto over their alleged efforts to delay the Venice Dell project.

“The idea that they're shutting down 140 shelter beds and preventing 140 permanent housing units from coming into the neighborhood,” said Dennison, “I don't think would be accepted, quite frankly, in most neighborhoods in Los Angeles.”

The Venice Neighborhood Council recently passed a motion asking the city to create an adverse weather shelter, but it's unclear if or when that shelter would open.