PALMDALE, Calif. – The Palmdale City Council is sending a strong message to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass Thursday by passing a resolution aimed at not using the desert city in northern Los Angeles County as a dumping ground for homeless people.
The Palmdale City Council voted unanimously on a resolution at its meeting on Wednesday night declaring opposition to the city of Los Angeles using emergency powers to create a homeless village in the Palmdale area.
“It’s very clear, very concise. It makes the point known without declaring war on the city of Los Angeles,” City Councilwoman Andrea Alarcon said at the meeting on Wednesday.
One of the first actions Bass took when she became mayor of Los Angeles was to declare an emergency on homelessness. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors followed by declaring an emergency on homelessness on Tuesday at its meeting. The motion was co-authored by County Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Kathryn Barger. Barger represents the district which includes Palmdale.
The Long Beach City Council is also considering an emergency proclamation on homelessness and approved a declaration on Tuesday night.
Part of the county emergency declaration calls for accelerating the creation of more licensed shelter beds and interim and permanent housing. The Palmdale City Council members are worried their city will be used as a place for shelters for homeless people from other cities in Los Angeles County.
Bass issued a statement following the emergency declaration by the Board of Supervisors stating, “The people of Los Angeles deserve that we urgently and immediately take every possible action to bring unhoused Angelenos indoors, and this declaration will enable us to move faster and unlock every tool possible.”
The most recent point-in-time homeless count in 2022 revealed nearly 42,000 homeless people in the city of Los Angeles and more than 69,000 in the county.
2UrbanGirls contributed to this report.
2 Comments
The Palmdale City Council did not pass a resolution concerning the homeless last night. The Council made language suggestions to a draft resolution that will be on the agenda at a later date.
I live in this area and we DO NOT NEED any more homeless. We have enough of our own and with them bringing more homeless here it will be worse than Lancaster which btw has the worst crime I’ve ever seen. People will commit robbery with a cop right outside. No F*** given. The lawlessness in Lancaster which is our nextdoor neighbor rivals that of Compton circa 1990’s. It’s Bad. And Palmdale is skating by just slightly better. The residents here deserve better than to have our town as the dumping ground for the counties homeless and pedophiles. They need to quit using this area. Use somewhere else. Maybe next to their own town. But not here