Subject: Stop Choosing Optics Over Human Lives
To: councilmember.hernandez@lacity.org, lyric.kelkar@lacity.org, Councilmember.Nazarian@lacity.org, councilmember.blumenfield@lacity.org, keith.banks@lacity.org, contactCD4@lacity.org, mashael.majid@lacity.org, councilmember.yaroslavsky@lacity.org, Andrew.deblock@lacity.org, councilmember.padilla@lacity.org, lamont.cobb@lacity.org, councilmember.rodriguez@lacity.org, marie.rumsey@lacity.org, sean.starkey@lacity.org, councilmember.harris-dawson@lacity.org, councilmember.price@lacity.org, cd10@lacity.org, andrew.westall@lacity.org, councilmember.park@lacity.org, councilmember.soto-martinez@lacity.org, sachin.medhekar@lacity.org, councilmember.jurado@lacity.org, steve.diaz@lacity.org, councilmember.mcosker@lacity.org, Pamela.Thornton@lacity.org, anissa.raja@lacity.org, councilmember.Lee@lacity.org
City Clerk: Please attach the following letter as written public comment to Council File 26-4118-S5
Dear Members of the Los Angeles City Council,
You voted 11-4 to adopt Council File 26-4118-S5 and vastly expand LAMC 41.18 enforcement zones across Imelda Padilla’s district. Councilmembers Bob Blumenfield, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Heather Hutt, John Lee, Tim McOsker, Adrin Nazarian, Imelda Padilla, Traci Park, Curren Price, Monica Rodriguez, and Katy Yaroslavsky voted YES. Councilmembers Eunisses Hernandez, Ysabel Jurado, Nithya Raman, and Hugo Soto-Martínez voted NO.
The members who voted YES chose to expand a failed system that destroys survival belongings, destabilizes access to outreach and medical care, consumes enormous public resources, and pushes vulnerable Angelenos from one neighborhood to another without creating a single unit of housing.
LAMC 41.18 does not build affordable housing. It does not provide treatment. It does not provide shelter capacity sufficient to meet existing need. It does not address rising rents, displacement, austerity, or the structural failures driving homelessness.
It creates exclusion zones.
More than 60,000 K-12 students in Los Angeles County experienced homelessness during the 2023-2024 school year. Los Angeles remains in a deep housing crisis. Yet Council continues investing political energy and taxpayer dollars into policies designed to move suffering out of public view.
History will remember who voted to expand criminalization instead of solutions.
Angelenos deserve housing, dignity, and care. You fail them time and time again.
