Hollywood elite fight plans for homeless cabins in upmarket beach areas  

Dating back to 1921, the Pacific Palisades has been home to intellectuals and Hollywood celebrities for decades. 

Larry David, Ben Affleck and Arnold Schwarzenegger - who went on to become California’s governor - are among the stars who have made the town with a three-mile coastline their home.

More secluded than areas like Beverly Hills, the town - which has a population of just under 30,000 - is a haven of tranquillity.

House prices can be stratospheric. Francois Navarre, the owner of one of Hollywood’s major celebrity photo agencies, recently put his mansion on the market for an eye-watering $15.9 million.

Residents have long regarded the paparazzi as a nuisance. Ben Affleck, for example, complained about being followed by photographers when taking his children to church.

But now there is a new bone of contention.

Residents of the Pacific Palisades and other upmarket Los Angeles beach towns are fuming at council plans to house the homeless in temporary cabins next to the seafront.

Thousands have signed a petition to halt a proposal by local council members to dismantle unofficial encampments and move the homeless population to shelters in parks and beaches, including the famous Will Rogers State beach, where Baywatch was filmed.

Pictures distributed by Councilman Mike Bonin show rows of beach hut-style cabins, which he called “legalised emergency homeless shelters”, in car parks in the Marina del Rey and Pacific Palisades areas of Santa Monica Bay.

“Parents are frustrated,” said Matt Stayner, 54, a long-term resident who said he can no longer take his four children to Westchester Park, one of the earmarked areas. “We’ve lost our park and I would like to see action.”

Opponents said the proposed camps are not a solution to homelessness and would bring the problems of drugs, mental illness, crime and danger into the communities where the tent cities would rise.

They feared their communities could become the next Venice, a neighbourhood with multiple encampments that has experienced a huge 177 per cent spike in violent robberies in the last year.

Business owners say they are being forced to close their doors, while some residents say they are now too afraid to leave their homes after dark.

Videos appear on social media every day showing fires being lit and fights breaking out.

Homelessness in Los Angeles was already on the rise before the coronavirus pandemic, which has further exasperated the problem in places like Skid Row, Hollywood and Venice Beach.

The LA Homeless Services Authority says homelessness was up 13 per cent, this year reaching 66,000 people in the greater LA area.

Other residents said that while the solution was not ideal, they did not see what else could be done to alleviate the problem.

“I think a lot of people are thinking if we create safe camping locations, that more people will come,” Sara Chapman told the LA Times.

“Well guess what? They’re already here. So not dealing with them and not doing something is not the answer.”

Gavin Newsom, the Californian governor, said he was committing $12billion toward the state's seemingly intractable homeless problem in what he said was the largest amount of money spent at one time to get people off the streets.

The move comes as LA, San Francisco and San Diego, along with smaller cities and towns, grapple with mushrooming homeless populations and the spread of unsanitary conditions and disease in blighted communities.

The $12billion in homelessness spending is part of a larger $100billion package Newsom calls the "California Comeback Plan," in reference to economic damage sustained to the nation's most populous state during the coronavirus pandemic.

Of the $12billion, $7billion would be used to acquire more temporary housing under "Project Roomkey," a programme in which the state provides money for cities and counties to rent hotel rooms for people living on the streets.

Another $1.75billion would be spent to build affordable homes, some $450million to address student homelessness and $150million to "stabilise and rehouse" people given shelter under Project Roomkey.

Last month, the US District Judge David Carter ordered Los Angeles to find shelter for the roughly 4,500 people living on the streets of the city's infamous Skid Row neighbourhood.