Resident says kids are witnessing 'needles,' 'nudity' and 'human bodily fluids' on streets near popular tourist attraction
Hollywood residents are upset over a homeless camp they say has "engulfed" an area charter school and turned surrounding streets into a cesspool filled with needles, trash and tents.
Kevin Dalton and Jeannie Vasquez, two of the locals outraged by the city council's failure to take action, joined "Fox & Friends First" Wednesday where they laid out the problem to Fox News' Carley Shimkus.
"[The encampment has] basically engulfed Larchmont Charter School," Dalton said, adding shortly after, "These are kids who now need to walk in the street to avoid the needles, the nudity, the human bodily fluids that are all over the street. The kids need to be the priority, not the drug addicts who are out there."
CALIFORNIA COURTHOUSE PARKING LOT TURNS INTO HOMELESS ENCAMPMENT WITH 24/7 SECURITY
Hollywood residents Jeannie Vasquez and Kevin Dalton said their complaints about homelessness in the area have not been addressed. (Fox & Friends First)
Dalton said the city council tells residents that clearing the camp will be harmful to its inhabitants' futures. He also blasted the notion that the homeless polluting the streets are the same as "the single mother of three working minimum wage who just came up a few dollars short on the rent."
"That's 100% not the case," he said. "These are people who want to be out there getting high, and they have the perfect opportunity because the city, law enforcement, nobody is doing anything about it."
Vasquez, who also lives near the encampment, captured footage of it that aired during Wednesday's segment, showcasing tents and people lining the sidewalks as vehicles pass. The encampment is around the corner from the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a popular street for tourists to visit.
CALIFORNIA HOMELESS MAKE UP NEARLY ONE-THIRD OF US HOMELESS POPULATION, NEW REPORT SHOWS
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 25: Costumed characters walk past flowers placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Star of Harry Belafonte on April 25, 2023 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images) (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)
She said locals are paying anywhere between $1,500 and $2,300 for a studio apartment, yet they are unable to walk their dogs around the block and enjoy the neighborhood.
"We're seeing people that are walking around unclothed, yelling, screaming in the middle of the night. It's just really sad to see the neighborhood going down like this," she lamented.
"If you go on L.A. Sanitation [website], you will see countless reports of all the residents that have been complaining. What we're finding is that they were cleaning on a regular basis. They were cleaning on a weekly bi-weekly basis. But when they let it pile up week after week after week, the residents come, and then they build what's called a village. They build an encampment village, and then they steal furniture. We have parts of bicycles, car parts, and it just gets really dirty," she added.
Both residents' concerns coincide with larger complaints of the homeless crisis in The Golden State, despite Gov. Gavin Newsom, D., spending over $17 billion over four years to address the crisis.
California has spent over $17 billion to address the homeless crisis. In a recent interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, Gov. Gavin Newsom, D., admitted the state has ‘not made progress’ on the issue. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Newsom's senior adviser on homelessness, Jason Elliott, insisted the problem would be "so much worse" without the significant spending, according to a recent CNN report.
The outlet responded to his claim by arguing that amount of spending could have theoretically covered the cost of rent for each homeless person within those four years, a claim Elliott refuted by saying the challenges extend much further than rent and would fail to address deeper mental health issues many homeless suffer from.
CNN countered that claim by arguing that allocating the $17.5 billion to house each homeless person would still leave approximately $4 billion for mental health services though they acknowledged that finding enough "affordable housing" would pose an issue.
Like many others upset by the crisis being so close to home, including Dalton, Vasquez claimed she has also complained to the city council, but she keeps getting the response that there's "nothing they can do."
Dalton called the crisis a "failure from top to bottom," blaming Newsom down to the mayor and the city council for allowing the homeless to "slowly commit suicide" on the sidewalks.
Taylor Penley is an associate editor with Fox News.
