The Homeless Do Not Matter in LA

Los Angeles City Council gave final approval Tuesday to an aggressive crackdown on street encampments, setting the stage for the first major homeless sweeps in the city in decades.Mayor Eric Garcetti said he would sign the two ordinances, which authorize seizure and in some cases destruction of makeshift shelters and other property of homeless people. The mayor also said he supported proposed amendments that would drop a criminal penalty for violations and eliminate medication and personal documents from the list of belongings that can be confiscated.

Councilman Gil Cedillo, who cast the lone no vote, said the measures would criminalize homelessness while doing nothing to help people off the streets."We should have a war on poverty, not on the poor," LATimes