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Activist groups have issues with some of the plans that the city of Los Angeles has proposed to deal with the homeless population.
The Los Angeles Times reports that L.A. City Council is going to vote on a plan that would "reorganize and expand the city's sanitation teams to provide more consistent attention to cleaning up encampments across LA".
Some of the things that this plan would do, include adding trash cans and portable toilets in neighborhoods that need them.
The executive director of the Los Angeles Community Action Network says, "On paper the plan looks and sounds good, but there are still a couple of core elements that exist that makes it appear more like lipstick on a pig rather than a good plan".
So what exactly are the problems that these activists have with this plan?
They don't want police involvement.
Jane Nguyen, from the group Services Not Sweeps, states, "We have to stop the adverse relationship between the city and the homeless population, and it starts with removing LAPD from encampments and cleanups".
Enrique Zaldivar the chief of the L.A. Sanitation Bureau said that the LAPD was necessary because cleanup teams were attacked and threatened when trying to do their jobs.
He says, "It's extremely important that we recalibrate our presence in the field with LAPD. But to say that ... workers don't need some level of protection? I'm not prepared to say that".
All of this comes after it was released that 311 calls asking to "clear homeless encampments increased by 167%" between the years 2016 and 2018.
Mayor Eric Garcetti has been under fire due to this increase, but he says he's not the only one to blame. He claims that the state and federal government hasn't given Los Angeles enough money for housing.
He says, "Taking responsibility and being responsible are two different things".
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