Retailers and other businesses on Hollywood and Sunset boulevards in Los Angeles hope cactus plants placed on the sidewalk will keep homeless people from setting up encampments outside their doors.
The Assistance League of Los Angeles, a nonprofit that helps homeless and impoverished children, purchased several large wooden planters filled with cacti recently to set outside its headquarters on the 6600 block of Sunset Boulevard.
Despite having a few of the plants stolen, the strategy seems to be working.
“We’re keeping them there for now,” Chief Executive Officer Melanie Merians told Epoch TV’s California Insider May 14. “We have many different people and children coming in and out of the building all the time, and we just wanted to keep it clear of tents for everyone’s safety.”
Homeless tents and blue tarps crowded the sidewalk a few doors down along the outside wall of the Sunset Sound Studio, where Prince, the Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, and other music superstars have recorded chart-topping hits.
One resident in the area said the potted succulents have improved the blighted streets.
Ms. Merians said everyone is trying their best to deal with the growing transient population in their own way.
“It’s very challenging,” she said. “[The unhoused] don’t have anywhere to go.”
