Councilman Buscaino Stands Behind Shelters, San Pedro Continues Fight

The idea of a temporary homeless shelter across the street from San Pedro's waterfront near surrounding neighborhood homes had alot of residents upset and in protest Saturday. 

The group Saving San Pedro was the organization in charge of the 2-hour long demonstration held on a  stretch of Gaffey Street in San Pedro, where they chanted “enough is enough!”

Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino is a strong supporter of A Bridge Home, which would place temporary shelters across Los Angeles, and says it is a way to finally address the city's growing homeless numbers. 

“We simply have two options: allow people to continue living on our sidewalks, or bring them inside and help them achieve a permanent place to live,” Buscaino said in a statement. There has now been talk of recall movement against Councilman Buscaino. 

The residents of San Pedro are most concerned with the actual location of the shelter after they have dealt with years of tent encampments encroaching on their sidewalks and into their neighborhoods where they find discarded drug needles and human poop. 

“It’s the location,” Liz Guardado-Nicosia of San Pedro told the DailyBreeze, noting the prospective site is across the street from the World Cruise Center, the Battleship Iowa and close to downtown San Pedro. “We’re not against homeless people, we’re against vagrants.”

According to the protesters, Buscaino is just not listening to them. One resident even proposed another location for the temporary shelter on Terminal Island, which holds abandoned federal buildings and a remodeled commissary, but the council office has given no response. 

Marchers on the street Saturday held signs that read “Joe Must Go” and “Bringing it on! Joe needs to be gone!” Referencing the infamous words of Buscaino when he talked to John and Ken and said "bring it" in the talks of a recall. 

Joanne Rallo, the founder of Saving San Pedro, told DailyBreeze Saturday’s crowd sent a message, but there would be more efforts to come as residents tracked the shelter debate.

“There are a lot of new faces, this is a new group of people beginning to wake up,” Rallo said.

Joanne Rallo will have more on this today at 2pm with John and Ken. 

Photo: Getty Images


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