Homeless People Disrupt Rally in Support of Housing for the Homeless

Photo credit: Andrew Mollenbeck

Mayor Eric Garcetti, Sheriff Jim McDonnell, council members and dozens of advocates held an event Friday morning in support of Propositions 1 and 2. The ballot measures are for billions of dollars in bonds that would support housing for veterans, people with disabilities and those with serious mental illness. 

A man with no pants on paced around the rally at the beginning, shouting over some of the speakers. He later took off his shirt and joined another man in belting out the national anthem when Council President Herb Wesson began speaking from the podium. 

"Why do they start singing when it's my time?" he asked. 

"I mean, you're pickin' on the little fella." On any given day, about a dozen homeless people lie on the grassy and shaded area on the south side of City Hall. Tents line the sidewalk on the east side of the building. 

"People are experiencing drug addition, people have untreated mental health crises, and you don't have to be on the street to feel the pinch of this crisis," Garcetti said. 

Homeless advocates estimate about a third of the people living on the streets have an untreated mental illness.


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