Rich neighbourhood crippled by 'rapidly growing' homeless camps lining streets
If you're looking for the elite when it comes to Hollywood celebrities, there's only one place to go; Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.
The ultra-rich neighbourhood is known for its popularity with A-listers and Hollywood stars, with the average price of a home in the area being around $3.5 million.
However, LA is in crisis with a rapidly expanding population of homeless people.
As a result of the growing homelessness issue, encampments have been spotted popping up in residential areas.
This includes Beverly Hills, where multi-million dollar houses are sitting alongside clusters of tents lining residential streets, highways and parks.
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Homeless people have been spotted begging on the infamously elite Rodeo Drive, home to some of the biggest designer brands in the world and exclusive shopping experiences for those that can afford it.
A man sleeps in a community adjacent to Santa Monica on February 7, 2022 in Venice Beach (Getty Images)It's a stark contrast, highlighting a growing issue in the Californian city.
However, it's not a new issue. While LA is known to many for its affluence and celebrity, it's also home to a neighbourhood characterised with being home to the down and out - Skid Row.
Skid Row is a downtown area of Los Angeles comprising of around 54 blocks which became prominent as early as the late 1800s.
It was an ideal spot for homeless people to congregate, along with aimless rail riders, transient workers and other as it was the last stop on the train connecting Southern California to the wider US.
Tents line the street in Skid Row in Los Angeles, California on September 17, 2019 (AFP via Getty Images)A count carried out by the Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count in 2022 showed a four per cent increase in the number of people categorised as 'unsheltered' since 2020.
In total, 69,144 people were counted, with the majority being made up of individuals (58,251), particularly adults over the age of 25 (56,063).
While there is no specific data for Beverly Hills, there is data for the Hollywood area as a whole which showed almost 2,000 (1,872) homeless people living in the area.
Meanwhile, data for the same period from Skid Row recorded 4,402 homeless people in the area - with 2,695 of those being 'unsheltered'.
A homeless man sleeps on a sidewalk near UCLA in the heart of Westwood Village (Getty Images)
A homeless man sleeps in an alley near UCLA in Westwood Village as viewed on June 16, 2022 in Los Angeles (Getty Images)In a report to the Beverly Hills City Council seen by the Beverly Hills Courier, assistant city manager Nancy Hunt-Coffey noted homelessness in the neighbourhood "seems to be increasing" but that is "difficult to know with certainty".
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Mayor Lili Bosse called for "hardcore data and acountability" following a heated debate on the issue which lasted hours.
"We're just hearing stories," she said following a meeting which discussed crime and mental illness in detail without providing clear statistics on either topic.
Several residents of the area have already spoken out about how homelessness threatens their way of life. They equated homeless people with making people feel unsafe on evening walks, harassment of women, and posting threats to "regular persons" as one resident said.
Amy Conroy is afraid to let her children play outside. She said: "Many of my peers are considering moving because they consider the situation hopeless."
A homeless man begging on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills (Corbis via Getty Images)For the most part, mayor Bosse and fellow council members reportedly tried to see both the sides of concerned residents and the homeless.
Council member Lester Friedman asked: "Are the homeless a danger?
"Perhaps, but more than likely not."
Friendman went on to say: "Being homeless, or being an eyesore, or smelling bad is not against the law."
However, the legality of homelessness was up for debate. Homelessness is not outlawed in Beverly Hills, however it is illegal to sit, lie or sleep on a public street, alley or sidewalk.
In January 2023, three homeless people died in the Sherman Oaks area in a week. A local business owner told ABC7 the city should be doing more to avoid these deaths.
Angela Marsden, who owns a business in the area, called the situation "traumatising" and claimed to have told city officials multiple times the deaths were inhumane.
"We've had three bodies in a week and a half, two right here, three dead people," she said.
"It's not about politics. This is about human lives."
A homeless man camps out on a bus bench near Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) (Getty Images)Data from the Los Angeles Department of Public Health showed the number of homeless deaths had risen from around two a day in 2014 to almost five per day in 2020.
Ken Craft, of the Hope of the Valley organisation which advocates for the homeless, said: "What we do see, unfortuantely, is an increase in fentanyl on our streets which has caused a higher level of overdoses.
"As the weather turns cold and hypothermia sets in we do see people dying."
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass even ran a campaign which saw her claiming she would address the growing homeless crisis in the city.
Speaking to a conference in January, Bass said affluent residents in the city simply don't care about homeless people, and apparently just want to see them moved on or arrested.
A homeless man pushes a cart with his belonging along the Boardwalk in this beach community adjacent to Santa Monica on February 7, 2022 (Getty Images)California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the state's plans to cut homelessness by 15 per cent in just two years, and has committed to providing 500 small homes for the homeless in the city to achieve that.
"In California we are using every tool in our toolbox - including the largest-ever deployment of small homes in the state - to move people out of encampments and into housing," he said.
"The crisis of homelessness will never be solved without first solving the crisis of housing - the two issues are inextricably linked."
LA city council member Joe Buscaino has previously complained about children in his city having to "step over needles" and "human waste" on their way to school as a result of those sleeping rough in residential areas.
The downtown highrises of Los Angeles are viewed at sunrise from the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area in the Baldwin Hills Mountains (Getty Images)In a television interview late last year, the Democrat said: "No child in America should be afraid to walk to school, and what we have found in Los Angeles is kids are afraid to walk to school.
"They tell their parents they have to step over needles, human waste, and deal with individuals unfortunately suffering from psychotic behaviour - right next to their playground area."
An initiative was launched by Los Angeles creating a new type of response system for 911 calls regarding homeless people, announced by mayor at the time Eric Garcetti.
CIRCLE - Crisis and Incident Response through Community-Led Engagement - is designed to help law enforcement focus on crime supression and preention by diverting non-emergency calls relating to homelessness.
It originally ran from 2021 to 2022, but has been expanded and is being integrated into the care plan led by current mayor Karen Bass.
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