Venice Beach residents’ frustrations growing as homeless continue to go unchecked

In recent months, residents of Venice Beach have watched helplessly as their community has taken a turn for the worse. What used to be a peaceful waterfront neighborhood has been overrun by hordes of, often violent, homeless people.

A video posted to Twitter shows how the famed boardwalk has changed since September of last year. At that time, it was teeming with people, vibrant and full of charm. Fast forward to April 2021, and the beach looks almost unrecognizable. Beachfront pop-up shops and promenaders have been replaced by what can only be described as a wall of tents.

According to Fox News there are "nearly 200 tents" now set up along the beach. They report that while "shopkeepers used to clear the few tents that appeared in the area when they opened for business ... several months of lockdowns and business closures led to an expansion of encampments."

Soledad Ursua, a member of the Venice Neighborhood Council, stated that "there's fights multiple times a day on the Ocean Front Walk ... stabbings, shootings are happening weekly." She added that the current situation has made it "very dangerous ... to be a Venice resident right now."

Crime statistics provided by the LAPD show that "violent crime robberies in the neighborhood up 177% and a 162% increase in cases of assault with a deadly weapon involving a homeless person."

A number of fires have also been started in the homeless encampment; one even destroyed a building along the boardwalk in January, according to Fox News.

The Councilman representing Venice Beach, Mike Bonin, stated that "the solution to removing the homeless is to free up more housing", but critics say that many of the tent-dwellers are perfectly content living on the beach, thus would not be enticed by proper housing. Even if they were, finding such housing in Los Angeles would be as Fox News describes it, a "herculean task".