The tent, chairs, bed and pillows were found in a very high severity fire zone in the parkland surrounding Pacific Palisades and removed.
Photo: Sharon Kilbride
On January 6, two new homeless camps were found in the Via Las Olas Bluffs by the LAPD Beach Patrol, which works with the Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness. The campers vacated the area and the campsites were cleaned the following day.
Forty needles were found in one large camp and later safely discarded. Another homeless man, who helps clean the pedestrian tunnels in Santa Monica Canyon, helped with the trash cleanup.
The area once served as an illegal campground, but after two brush fires broke out at encampments (one below Via las Olas, the other below Corona del Mar) and raced up the hillside toward Pacific Palisades homes, warning signs were posted in 2015: “Restricted Entry, Very High Fire Severity Zone.”
Those signs made it possible for L.A. Police Department officers to tell the homeless they cannot camp there.
“With the signs, I could ask them to move on,” Officer John Redican told this editor in an earlier story. “I would then ask them if they had help or if they wanted it.” He could connect the person with the two social workers hired by the PPTFH.
The trash around the encampments was cleaned up to return the parkland to a natural state. Forty needles were found in one campsite. Photo: Sharon Kilbride