LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A federal judge will hear from both the county and city of Los Angeles today about the status of their agreement to provide beds and services for people experiencing homelessness in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The hearing in downtown Los Angeles will focus on a binding term sheet agreement the parties entered into in June of last year and a memorandum of understanding between the city and county signed in October. The court is also expected to consider whether to reinstate its preliminary injunction to protect those individuals experiencing homelessness currently living near freeway overpasses, underpasses and ramps.
The proceedings are part of a lawsuit lodged against the city and county by the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, a group made up of downtown business owners and Skid Row residents who argue that local government had mismanaged the homelessness crisis and wasted public money while the number of people living on the streets -- thought to be about 60,000 -- increases.
Fed up with a lack of momentum in the year-old case, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter ordered in April that the city and county of Los Angeles must offer housing to the homeless population of Skid Row by the middle of October. A federal appeals court put an administrative hold on the judge's decree until the conclusion of back to back hearings Wednesday and Thursday to discuss possible modifications to his order, financial arrangements to pay for homeless housing and other issues.
Although an agreement was reached in June last year to provide an additional 6,700 beds over the following 16 months, with funding for five years thereafter, impetus bogged down in disagreements and inaction, court papers show.
In May last year, Carter ordered Los Angeles authorities to move thousands of homeless people away from freeways and ramps because of such deadly hazards as pollutants, passing cars and potential earthquakes. The temporary injunction -- which was subsequently put on hold -- was meant to compel county and city governments to provide alternative shelter to 6,000 to 7,000 indigent people.
Carter's April order set a timetable for offers of shelter to be made to between 2,000 and 4,000 homeless people living on the streets of Skid Row by October. The sprawling 50-block area just blocks from Staples Center contains one of the largest populations of indigent people in the nation.
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