This homeless woman was sleeping inside the Post Office.
Photo: John Alle
With the cold weather and lack of homeless shelters, the local Post Office has become a place for a few people seeking shelter during the rains.
On March 2, CTN posted a letter from a resident that said “I was on my way home from work, mailing a stack of letters around 10:53 p.m.. There were two men sleeping inside the Post Office.
“One guy was my size, 6′ 3″ and charged me, but I stayed calm and talked him down. (The second man – actually a woman- sleeping in the Post Office remained under the green blanket.)
“What do you think about the idea of our Post Office closing and locking its doors daily between, say, 8 p.m. and 5:30 or 6 a.m.?”
LAPD Commanding Officer of the West Los Angeles Area Captain Craig Heredia and Senior Lead Officer Brian Espin responded to community concerns.
Espin spoke to the Postmaster the next day, March 3. Espin reported that the postmaster “told me the evening and morning staff had recently noticed the PEH’s (person experiencing homelessness) the last couple days.
“There has not been an issue until recently, which he believes is due to the recent cold weather,” Espin said. “I asked him about securing the lobby area in the evening. He stated the Palisades post office lobby area has been open 24 hours since before he became Postmaster, about four years ago. He said this branch is the only one open 24 hours that he is aware of. If it were to change, he would have to go higher up to initiate any changes.”
Espin said, he then directed the evening patrol unit to routinely check the lobby.
On Saturday, a resident reported that she had stopped by after dinner and found a woman in the lobby with a number of blankets and coats.
Captain Heredia thanked the resident for the information and said that additional patrols had been requested for that area.
On Sunday morning, March 5, LAPD Officer Jose Bermudez wrote “we have passed the word for extra patrol here at the Post Office and we will be going in and out to ensure there is no one loitering at the location.
“We came in early this morning and will make it part of our daily routine to complete a walk thru at the location,” said Bermudez, who is part of the Beach Patrol.
He noted that if someone were to come in and find someone sleeping, they could call the LAPD non-emergency number (877) 275-5273 and report the disturbance for police response.
Heredia noted that “there has been no crime reported, yet the police response has been proactive. We work hard every day to keep the Pacific Palisades community safe.”