Los Angeles is bracing for months of extreme weather, with El Niño threatening to bring atmospheric rivers, flooding, severe thunderstorms, and more. One might expect one of the wealthiest cities in the world to be preparing by strengthening protections for its most vulnerable residents, including the tens of thousands of unhoused Angelenos forced to battle the elements without a roof over their heads. Instead, people who cannot afford housing in this unaffordable city face the double threat of extreme weather and a city government that continues its violent and destructive sweeps, even as storms bear down. A coalition of community organizations is demanding that city officials instead take immediate action to protect unhoused residents from potentially deadly conditions. The call comes after sanitation crews reportedly destroyed nearly twenty makeshift shelters in Skid Row last Wednesday, just an hour before heavy rain began falling.

According to an October 26 press release issued by nine organizations, including Mar Vista Voice, Los Angeles Sanitation (LASAN) crews conducted an unannounced cleanup on Central Avenue in Skid Row on October 21, despite rain forecasts issued days in advance. Residents were given just minutes to gather their belongings and move. A few residents were able to relocate their shelters, but roughy twenty others watched as the sanitation crew destroyed their tents and makeshift shelters. Within an hour, the rain began, and residents were left exposed to the elements with only the few items they were able to salvage.

Sonja Verdugo, an organizer with Ground Game LA who has spent years doing outreach in Skid Row, got a call that morning from John Raphling of the Los Angeles Community Action Network (LACAN), telling her what had happened. Verdugo had been collecting tents and other supplies in anticipation of the storms, so she loaded up her car and drove from Pasadena to Skid Row. After seeing how many people had lost their shelters, she drove back home to pick up more. She estimates she distributed about 16 tents that day.

One couple she encountered was sitting on the sidewalk with nothing but a rain poncho over their heads. Sanitation crews had taken everything. “They took everything of theirs, everything,” Verdugo recalled. She gave them a tent, tarp, and other supplies.

Instead of providing emergency shelter or supplies to help people stay warm and dry in the rain or cool during the extreme heat, the city continues deploying sanitation crews, supported by LAPD, to destroy shelters people have constructed to protect themselves. According to the coalition, officials made just one hotel room available for two people affected by the sweep last week, leaving the remaining residents without any emergency accommodations.

Meanwhile, volunteers like Verdugo are scrambling to replace the same supplies the city is destroying. She has been buying tents, blankets, hand warmers, and other essentials with money raised through a grassroots sticker club fundraiser, featuring artwork donated by organizers and community members, including unhoused artists. The fundraiser brought in about $1,700, much of which she has already spent on supplies. “We don’t get funded by anybody,” she explained.

This incident last week underscores the broader failure in the city’s approach to homelessness during extreme weather. Los Angeles has limited emergency shelter programs, but there is no system in place to ensure unhoused residents can access them when dangerous weather is on the horizon. People with disabilities, medical conditions, and other special needs face particularly serious risks when shelter and transportation are unavailable.

Verdugo says community organizations have been trying to get the city to take these dangers seriously. She recently joined representatives from LACAN, Ground Game LA, The Sidewalk Project, and Venice Justice Committee for a meeting with Jenny Scanlon from Mayor Karen Bass’s office to discuss conditions on the streets and the need for a better response. But she has seen little indication that the city is preparing to make meaningful changes. “There’s no preparation,” she said. “They’re too busy passing back and forth reports.”

With more severe storms expected through the beginning of next year, the coalition wants the city to get serious about protecting people. That means opening enough emergency shelters so people have somewhere to go when storms hit, handing out tents, tarps, ponchos, sandbags, and other supplies, and having sanitation crews clear trash and storm drains that flood people’s shelters instead of destroying the shelters themselves. The groups are also calling for priority access to hotel rooms and additional assistance for people with disabilities and other special needs.

The coalition is also demanding that the city stop sweeping encampments when storms are on the way, as they did last week when sanitation crews destroyed shelters in Skid Row an hour before the rain started.

The organizations are also calling for unhoused residents and community groups to be included as equal partners in emergency planning, rather than having decisions imposed on them by agencies that may be disconnected from conditions on the ground.

The statement was issued by the CD11 Coalition for Human Rights, Los Angeles Community Action Network (LACAN), Ground Game LA, Ktown 4 All, Mar Vista Voice, Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid, The Sidewalk Project, Skid Row Coalition for Community Safety, and Venice Justice Committee.

“The extreme weather presents our city leaders with a choice,” the organizations wrote. “Do we learn from past disasters and take the necessary steps to protect people or do we count some people as disposable?”