Like Bonin, Darling opposed a Los Angeles city ordinance that allows council members to designate parks, libraries and other areas as off-limits to homeless encampments. He said too much emphasis has been put on moving people around, without creating the temporary and permanent homes that will help get them off the streets.
Darling did not take a position on another L.A. ordinance, which banned camping close to all schools and day-care centers. He said he would not fight enforcement of those new restrictions.
The Venice resident has supported a number of proposals for new housing construction, including one that would put 140 units for homeless and low-income people on the center median of Venice Boulevard in Venice. He has criticized Park for opposing that plan and for failing to specify new housing projects that she would support.
Park said she would use the anti-camping ordinance to block people from moving to certain public spaces, like around parks and libraries. She also supported the City Council in banning camping close to schools.
Park said she would put an emphasis on returning public spaces to all of the public, rather than let it be taken over solely by unhoused people.
The attorney supported police, outreach workers and others who in June shut down an encampment of about 60 tents that had mushroomed in Centennial Park, which occupies the Venice Boulevard median. Park said homeless people from the camp were given humane alternatives.
Darling said the Centennial Park cleanup was done prematurely, without adequate care and preparation for the people who lived there, some of whom ended up moving to nearby public places.
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