
Tents line both sides of the path on the west bank of Echo Park Lake.
Echo Park - A recent cool and gray Saturday morning at Echo Park Lake found a few joggers taking laps around the paths, fisherman waiting patiently for a bite and geese honking at anyone who wandered too close. Then there were the tents.
Tiny, one-person pup tents. More roomy tents large enough for three or four people. And a combination of tents and pieces of wood and other materials, some with microwaves, mirrors and artwork placed near entrances. All told there were slightly more than 100 tents in what has become one of the neighborhood's largest and most visible homeless encampments.
Despite concerns about public health and safety, the homeless encampment at the lake has continued to grow during the pandemic and quarantine.
"There definitely is an increase," said Genevieve Liang a board member at SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition, which started seeing growth along the lake as early as late February or early March, before the pandemic really even started to kick in.

Heidi Marston, executive director with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, echoed the sentiment, noting that the camp's expansion underscored the precarious economic situation many Angelenos have experienced because of COVID-19.
Up until early spring, SELAH (which stands for Silver Lake, Echo Park, Los Feliz, Atwater Village and Hollywood) had focused its outreach efforts on the tent cluster in the northwest corner of the park. But by the beginning of spring, they'd started to see the tent community had extended further south along the Glendale Boulevard. It now reaches the length of the lake, rows of tents reflected in the water.
And that's not counting the tents just outside the park border, or the assorted vans, campers and cars nearby that also serve as homes.
The encampment at the lake has defied numerous clean ups, some of which turned into tense confrontations between advocates for the homeless and city workers. The city had also pledged to increase health and social services as the tent city became a permanent feature of the park.
As for solutions to reduce the size or remove the encampment - no answers seem to stand out at the moment, at least through official channels.
Marston emphasized the need for more hotels and motels for people experiencing homelessness during the crisis.

Clothes dry on the line at Echo Park Lake
But the pandemic has created its own complications. A proposal to set up 30 beds at the headquarters for the Episcopal diocese across the street from Echo Park Lake fell through after Los Angeles came under COVID-19 emergency orders, according to Tony Arranaga, a spokesman for Councilman Mitch O’Farrell.
“We are actively working to identify other sites that are suitable for moving individuals indoors,” Arranaga said.
Meanwhile, more tents continued to pop up at the park even after the city converted a recreation center about three blocks south of the lake on Patton Street into an emergency homeless shelter in March.
At the Echo Park Neighborhood Council, the Homelessness and Housing Committee recently approved a couple of letters asking the City Council for more trash receptacles at the park, and up to $500 for cleaning supplies to distribute to people living by the lake. Those letters were forwarded to the main neighborhood council for approval.
But Mo Najad, vice chair of the council, said, “At the end of the day, the neighborhood council is just advisory. It comes down to the city and the state to address the problem. It’s a very big problem, but they could do better.”
He added, “Personally, I think the city has been lenient toward the homeless population during this time .... They have not kept up the sanitary policing.”

But the City Council also has its own limits on what it can do. O’Farrell noted in an interview with The Eastsider last May that a citywide emergency order forbids disturbing encampments.
To a fair extent, that leaves the encampment residents to figure out things on their own.
Most structures along the lake are just basic tents. One complex compound of tarps and tents features a circle of chairs and pots of drought-resistant plants. (Liang identified this as one of the camp's "provisions closets," where people can pick up supplies.) Not far from there is the other extreme - a pile of unidentifiable wreckage.
On the banks of the water stands a cluster of umbrellas, where it's possible to sleep on the shore. Near a sign that says "Eric Garcetti took our showers," a communal shower stall has been rigged up, Liang said.
Street Watch LA has set up solar charging stations and has helped people apply for stimulus checks, Liang added. Marston said LAHSA has outreach teams in the park as well.
And while some people have contacted The Eastsider saying they avoid the park now, a recent Saturday afternoon saw pedestrians strolling through the avenue of tents as they might through any other neighborhood.
“My sense is that folks who are living there have tried to self-organize amongst themselves, and provide for each other with resources from organizations likes ours,” Liang said.

The northwest corner of Echo Park Lake.
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(32) comments
My GF said she gets harassed by homeless every time she ties to run at that park.
I'm pondering voting for a Republican LA mayor next election. Maybe they'll take a harder stance on these homeless encampments taking away Angelenos quality of life.
Yes me too.
This is what happens when you throw out the poor people and gentrify a city. Anyway I'm happy I left Echo Park to all you rich folks. Enjoy!
Walking around Echo Park, I am appalled at the lack of action and initiative coming from Mitch O'Farrell's office regarding basic cleanliness of public spaces throughout the neighborhood. Sections of Sunset Blvd --perhaps the most famous boulevard in Los Angeles, and the backbone of EP's local economy -- are overtaken with debris and trash. Several of the bus stops are often surrounded by grime and trash. It appears there is no oversight of these areas whatsoever, although they are mere blocks from O'Farrell's office. Echo Park is a mess. It is one of the few green spaces in Echo Park, and should be safe and sanitary for elder members of the neighborhood, and for children. I'd like to see Garcetti and O'Farrell use the park in its current condition for photo ops the way they did when the park first reopened in 2013.
https://www.latimes.com/local/la-xpm-2013-jun-15-la-me-0616-echopark-lake-20130616-story.html#:~:text=%E2%80%9CIt%20was%20the%20heart%20of,a%20safer%20and%20cleaner%20future.
The extreme unsanitary conditions and crowding suggest coronavirus is not the pandemic we have been told. Prince Charles contracts covid while the indigent, addled and crowded homeless of Echo Park remain invulnerable?
My question is, why Echo Park and not the Silverlake Meadow and Elysian Park?
and ... what happened with Prop H? The people of L.A. voted to put resources towards homelessness ... but it doesn't even seem to matter.
There are a few issues at play here. First, the city has shown very little initiative to address this problem over the last several years allowing this to spiral out of control. Second, even the feeble efforts made by the city have been taken to court by homeless rights activist. The City, by and large, has lost in court and chosen not to appeal. Third, the city has decided essentially to decriminalize drug use and not enforce the laws on the books. Until, any of the above are fundamentally changed, this is new normal. Of course, there is a very real economic component as well, but few other places in the country have entire parks occupied by tents and debris.
It's disgusting, clear em out. Up and down glendale blvd is just more and more tents. Remove them all.
How about having that church take them in. They got plenty of room.
It's just a big party on your tax dime. Time to move them along. Already a health hazard.
This is typical in a Democratic run City and State...Keep the Sheepeople poor and dependent on Government handouts.
The homeless situation is upsetting throughout the city and more systemic changes need to be put in place. That said - this is a public park not a public shelter. It is illegal to camp in a park and you don’t see encampments in Elysian or Griffith...so why have government officials like Mitch O’Farrell and Eric Garcetti deemed it okay for the unhoused to take over Echo Park. Yes taxpayers paid to renovate the park, we also voted in Proposition H to create more housing for the homeless. The citizens of Echo Park Deserve a safe clean public park and the unhoused should have a safe shelter - it shouldn’t be mutually exclusive.
I agree with you 100%. I am one of those people who no longer go to the park and it saddens me that this problem has grown to this extent.
I have lived in Echo Park for many years and it is a shame what is happening to the Echo Park lake. SO much LA taxpayer money into making it beautiful and I would not take my mother or any relatives there to enjoy our community. The homeless population is extreme here, but allowing so many people to build permanent shelter on public park property is not helping anyone. It is setting a bad and confusing example to our children and it is hard to explain to them the hardships that are endured when it looks like people camping and having a beer or a smoke in an easy chair by a nice tent at the lake shore. The encampments are big and the inhabitants are bold and righteous. It's shameful.
There is only one feasible solution: find about 20 acres of land on the outskirts of LA County and setup bathrooms, showers, medical clinic, and food and offer all these people the chance to setup their tents there. It would be humane.
They wouldn't go there and our laws wouldn't allow us to make them go there.
Houses still selling for over one-million dollars in Echo Park? That is the real joke.
Yeah, if only houses were $800k, these drug and alcohol addicts could afford them and wouldn't be in a tent in the park.
End the emergency orders and the lockdowns so the encampments can be dismantled and the homeless put into safe places far from residences and businesses.
Sadly , echo park has turned into a slum.
I am STUNNED at the condition of the park today. I wont go there anymore. This is the greatest that we can do?
O'Farrell hasn't shown any political leadership about anything so far so it's no surprise that he's abdicated on this issue as well. It's really a shame...I always considered Echo Park Lake one of the gems of the neighborhood but I avoid the place now. I still run through park on my own but the smell of feces, cat-calling and chasing from some homeless, and open air drug dealing/theft has made the lake unsafe for my 3-year old daughter. It's turned into a total dump and the watching the decline has been really sad. Truly hope someone with a spine (other than O'Farrell or Garcetti) can provide a compassionate solution that houses and helps these folks while also returning the park to it's traditional function and appearance.
I just can't get over the fact that the city spent how many millions fixing this park. Also I grew up close by more by Tommy's and I do remember Echo Park being kind of run-down but at the same time at least it was family friendly nowadays I can't even walk your dog without fear of having some homeless person go berserk on you. It's happened to me and a friend who still lives in the area. And it's true I'd say 80 to 90% of the people in there aren't even from Los Angeles why are they coming to this park and crashing and making us all pay for their living situation. I work really hard to pay for what I have and live here in the city. If you can't make it somewhere else don't come here thinking you can considering LA is so expensive.
You know I grew up in echo park on and off the streets. Their use to be many homeless camps. Camps that homeless put together in different areas of the neighborhood. I remember off of alverado and sunset across the street from the gas station use to be a huge camp were they would have yard sales every Sunday, now stands a yuppie lofts and yoga bussiness. I mean what did the city expect would happen when you raise the rent to a redicules amount that only trust found baby's can afford then have rampart police department and crash units evict people from their homes for being related to anyone in a gang? I whent to Belmont high we weren't allowed to walk in groups bigger then 3 and the police on campus were allowed to breake us up stop us and search ask for our parents name and we're they lived. I knew about the gang injunctions then so I did my best to lie to the cops Evey time and give a different address. This is a issue of affordable housing LA city council chose tourist and trust found baby's with unrealistic rent over opertubity for its own local residents. We need affordable housing not homeless shelters or a Cheech like dream center that won't let you sleep in their building unless you love God and are clean of drugs and alcohol.
^^ This is the best summary of the LA situation I've seen yet.
YES to "We need affordable housing not homeless shelters or a Cheech like dream center that won't let you sleep in their building unless you love God and are clean of drugs and alcohol."
Focusing on [police-run] shelters instead of over-policing/schoolkid gang injunction bait car bulls**t/forced displacement of the poor/rising rents that are feasible for only one type of person (young childless wealthy etc.) --- the city is allocating so much money to "sheltering" people without admitting that they're creating the refugee-like need for shelter in the first place.
Its very true I hate how the goal post and the focus always moves away and is forced to look at a solution that only benifits the people who caused the problems we face.[thumbup][thumbup][thumbup][thumb
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There is NO such thing as "affordable" housing.....only market rate housing and subsidized housing...
That line of thinking would make sense except for the fact that a large majority of the unhoused folks at the park aren't even from here. Last time there was an in person meeting regarding this (pre covid) at the church across the street from the lake, Jed from Street Watch LA paraded around a unhoused guy to try and get sympathy. Except the guy had just moved here from Kansas. Jed says they will use our park for as long as they need to house anyone in the area. But why are folks coming from the mid west and expecting housing in one of the most expensive areas in the country?
Its not a way of thinking it's facts.
That picture of the clothes line isn't in the park, its across the street at someone's house! You put it in there as if it has something to do with the homeless people, as if they are blighting the area with the clothes lines, but it appears to have nothing to do with the homeless!
The photo is of the southeast corner of the park. https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0704904,-118.2597776,3a,75y,299.25h,80.78t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1siuSQ9YSxlcnL6zLoBIJUNg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
that's the park, not a private house.
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