City Council President Herb Wesson is looking into new sites for the Koreatown shelter that was proposed to get set up on a Vermont Avenue parking lot.
Many Koreatown residents and business owners protested the shelter and claimed they were left in the dark about the shelter and were not asked for permission from the City Council. Critics also said the Vermont ave. lot was too close to schools and businesses.
Wesson is looking at an alternative site in the same neighborhood where the original protesting was happening, brilliant idea really. Wesson pledged to hold community meetings in Koreatown before making a final decision on where they will put the temporary shelter.
Wesson said “every day that we delay, somebody is going to sleep on the streets — and that is what we are trying to avoid.”
The council is set to vote Friday to start assessing possible additional shelter sites in Venice, Hollywood and West L.A., along with taking up the Koreatown proposal.
The council president now also plans to evaluate a Western Avenue parking lot outside his Harvard Heights district office as a possible site for a second shelter and lots in the southern part of his district for "safe parking" programs that will assist people who live in their vehicles.
But Chan Yong “Jake” Jeong, an attorney who has helped organize many of the rallies, told the Los Angeles Times that the alternative site on Kenmore would do little to appease the protesters.
“The backlash will be the same,” he said. “This is still being done in a wrong model.”
Jeong will be on John and Ken today at 3:30 pm with more on the proposed shelter sites.
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