Dear Editor,
Bravo to our city council for enacting immediate change regarding the homeless. My husband John attended the special meeting regarding the homeless in person and I had registered to speak on webx but somehow it didn’t put me on the list. But I listened and cheered from home. We wholeheartedly support the reworking of our current anti camping law in order to bring us up to something similar to Los Angeles or Santa Monica’s policies. Freddy we are all on the same page. As Dan said it’s not an either or. We need EVERYTHING. Incorporating both humane treatment, getting people off streets and away from parks and schools and we need enforcement. Its way past time to DO something!!!! Goran spoke about 5 incidents in the park allowing our after school children to be scared and in danger at vets park by homeless last week. Someone masturbating in front of them. Performing a leud act, and urinating. Finally the staff brought the children inside for safety.
I have another incident to add. I heard someone screaming as I live 3 houses from El Marino so went out to see a homeless person walking into the park while the after school kids were there playing. Then I saw the staff member trying to locate the person while the staff person yelled to the kids on the playground “run away!” Many times. It’s unacceptable when our children are not safe playing in our parks or walking or biking to school on our streets. We need enforcement and anti camping laws to protect our kids and community. From the staff report it also seems that we already have a no camping law that includes the senior center. Please enact it to clean up the encampment at the senior center. It’s heartbreaking that our seniors are afraid to go to the senior center. These are the most vulnerable groups kids and seniors. Let’s show compassion to them.
Bonnie Wacker
