LOS ANGELES—Some residents are asking for help from the state because, they say, the city has not responded to their pleas for help after a string of fires—sparked by homeless encampments—and four homeless people were shot near the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve, the city’s largest wetland in Playa del Rey.
Lucy Han, a Playa del Rey resident and founder of Friends of the Jungle—a local environmental advocacy nonprofit—told The Epoch Times she’s now asking the state to send wardens to clear out the encampment and offer services to the homeless.
The California State Lands Commission, which protects natural and cultural resources, told Han in an email they will “engage in further conversations with Fish and Wildlife and others about patrolling the freshwater marsh and [find] ways to connect people experiencing homelessness at this site with services and resources to transition into housing.”
The email, which was shared with The Epoch Times, however said the commission doesn’t have the ability to fund other agencies’ work, since the Fish and Wildlife department is a separate entity in California’s government.
Han said she took the action after not hearing back from Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Bonin, who oversees the area, regarding enforcing the city’s anti-camping ordinance and restoring parking restrictions along nearby Jefferson Avenue, which has become lined with people living in RVs.
“We'll just go up the line if we need to go to the governor, that’s not a problem,” Han said. “The visitors that go to the marsh, they’re not able to go there anymore, because it’s dangerous.”
For many, the wetlands have become a dangerous place.
Once a protected area that visitors could tour, a fence surrounding the area has been broken down by the homeless who have taken refuge in the area.
Nearly two dozen RVs and vans remain parked on Jefferson Boulevard which divides the reserve and city-owned land. Roughly 30 tents can be seen within the Ballona Freshwater Marsh—which is part of the reserve typically visited for birdwatching—with bike chop shops and other personal belongings spread out along the wetland, including trash and needles.
Residents say they worry the encampments are harming the marsh’s natural wildlife, which experts say is home to more than 250 species of migratory birds, including the endangered Belding’s Savannah Sparrow and the El Segundo Blue Butterfly.
The encampment isn’t new, according to Lt. Geoff Deedrick, head deputy of the LA Sheriff’s Department Homeless Outreach and Services Team. But the increase in crime and trash is.
“We’ve been going there for 10 years,” Deedrick told The Epoch Times. “There is nothing new about this except COVID did kind of pause things.”
It’s unclear if other homeless agencies frequent the area, but according to residents, they don’t see an urgency by county and city leaders to address the problem.
And just where city and county boundaries begin and end has complicated things. The state owns the marsh and the City of Los Angeles owns the land that has been overtaken by encampments.
During the pandemic, the city and county rolled back sanitation and enforcement codes to mitigate the spread of the virus.
As a result, encampments grew in areas like the Venice Beach Boardwalk and other areas in Los Angeles’s Council District 11, largely composed of affluent westside beach communities overseen by Bonin.
According to Deedrick, the homeless began gravitating to the wetlands over the last decade for its environment and lack of police enforcement.
“People have been using the freshwater marsh as a toilet,” business community leader and District 11 candidate Traci Park told The Epoch Times. “If you walk down to the water, you will see wads of used toilet paper. You will smell the stench of human waste. The RVs have been pumping raw sewage straight into the storm drains.”
Yelling and screaming can be heard by intoxicated homeless individuals in the marsh as early as 9 in the morning, according to Park.
“The cumulative effect of all of this has been a significant detrimental environmental impact on a precious natural resource,” she said.
A few proposed cleanups for the area are in the works, the Sheriff’s Departments’ Deedrick said, adding that his team has visited the location four times in the last month to offer housing and other behavioral services to the homeless living there.
Paula Gerez, president of the Neighborhood Council of Westchester Playa, told The Epoch Times she’s had a similar experience trying to get a hold of Bonin’s office to discuss resources for the homeless and enforcement options.
According to Gerez, the neighborhood council will hear more discussions on the marsh in a meeting next month, but she is “really frustrated” by the city.
“I’m infuriated at the city’s lack of transparency and willingness to solve real problems and blaming it on COVID is just not okay. This has been there long before COVID,” Gerez said. “It just makes me think that they’re not really interested in a solution or working with our local neighborhood council.”
Neither Bonin nor the California State Lands Commission responded to requests for comment by press deadline.
