The homeless in Anaheim and Harbor Boulevard

[BadPinkTink]

I'm a little surprised Disney hasn't flexed it's influence and pushed the bubble out a couple blocks/streets deep around it and made sure it was clear of homeless in these areas.

So maybe the third shift workers at Disneyland could "sweep" Harbour Boulevard at about 6am to make sure it was clear of homeless for everyone arriving for rope drop and then again at 10pm for everyone leaving the parks

 

[AndrewC]

The area around Disneyland IS "cleaned up." You should see other parts of Anaheim...

Well that's good to know. I'll admit that it's been years since I've stayed offsite and usually when I'm driving in/out it's jumping on the freeway as soon as I can to head into LA or come from LA...

 

[longboard55]

Really bothers me when out of state people complain about the LA homeless. No you will not find as many in Wisconsin. Is it LAs fault we have perfect weather. It is a national problem and should be addressed at the national level, instead they dump it on California. The right thing to do would be relocate based on birth place

 

[AndrewC]

Really bothers me when out of state people complain about the LA homeless. No you will not find as many in Wisconsin. Is it LAs fault we have perfect weather. It is a national problem and should be addressed at the national level, instead they dump it on California. The right thing to do would be relocate based on birth place

To be clear, from my point of view it's not just an LA problem. I'm seeing it more and more in larger cities (and actually even my city on the eastern side of WA, ~200k people). It's just LA has a lot of major attractions that draw in out of state people that might be shocked to see this problem.

 

[StarlitNight05]

It's a heartbreaking issue for sure. I live near Sacramento and we are starting to see tent cities popping up all over the place. I'm noticing the homeless people in my area are less and less the quiet down on their luck type and are now more often aggressive and on drugs. My usual tactic is to ignore them (that sounds callous), but that doesn't even work now. I had a man chase me into a Safeway because I didn't give him any change... it was terrifying. Then DH and I were almost physically assaulted for cleaning up trash on the American River trail. They threatened to sick their dog on us and kept screaming how not all homeless people are dirty, etc. We were never implying they were the ones causing the trash.

I see it too often in my daily life, so when I go to Disneyland, I pony up to stay onsite. While not all the homeless near Disneyland are as aggressive as the examples above, it's not something I want to chance on vacation.

 

[longboard55]

25% pf the nations homeless are in socal. It has no easy answers other than to spread them out evenly across the country, but the rest of the country is more than happy to dump them in LA.

 

[Dr. G]

Does the country dump them there, or do they self-dump? Seems if someone has to live outside they would pick to be in a temperate climate. I didn't know buses drop homeless off in SoCal?

 

[Whistlebee]

I’ve never felt uncomfortable walking back to my hotel from Disneyland before and we’ve been going to DL multiple times a year for the last 9 years.

My younger daughter and I took a 1 day trip in October and we stayed at Hotel Indigo. We stayed till closing, so it was after 11pm when we were walking back to our hotel. It was just her and I with no one near us at all. There was a large group of people walking in the same direction as us (towards the convention center) but they were quite a bit in front of us, maybe 100+ ft. Anyway, a homeless woman came out of nowhere (she must’ve ran across Harbor behind us) and she walked right in front of us. We would’ve walked into her had we not stopped. She turned right in front of my 11 year old daughter (I was closest to the street) and she coughed loudly in her face. A deep cough that sounded like she was very sick. My daughter promised me she had actually coughed right behind her. But it looked as tho she had coughed right in her face as she cut in front of her and immediately turned and started walking the opposite direction as us. It was late and with no one even remotely close to us it definitely seemed that she did this on purpose.
In the future I’m going to try and walk with a group of people, if possible, or leave the park earlier. We were with other friends but they were staying at The Anaheim Hotel and we had already split off from them.

It felt to me that the homeless population in the immediate vicinity was larger than in the past. This was actually the first time that I felt the least bit uneasy. If I had been with another adult or a larger group I’m sure I would’ve felt differently.

 

[DontSpamMe]

25% pf the nations homeless are in socal. It has no easy answers other than to spread them out evenly across the country, but the rest of the country is more than happy to dump them in LA.

Spread them across the country. Like against their will? That's not very Californian of you.

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

Would it really matter who was in charge?

It always matters who is in charge.

 

[StarWarsNerd24]

Homelessness is a world wide issue. Always has been. Covid has exacerbated an already difficult problem. There is no one cause for homelessness, mental health, addiction and just bad luck are only some of the reasons this happen to people. No one wants to be homeless. Empathy and the occasional donation to a local shelter are small ways to help. Remember by the grace of god goes I.

 

[RedVines2001]

So maybe the third shift workers at Disneyland could "sweep" Harbour Boulevard at about 6am to make sure it was clear of homeless for everyone arriving for rope drop and then again at 10pm for everyone leaving the parks

Disney, a private company, has no standing to “sweep” Harbor Blvd, a public street, clear of transients. I think many overestimates Disney’s influence. It literally ends at that crack on the sidewalk at their property line.

Even the city of Anaheim, does not have that authority. It is not illegal to be homeless, nor is to yell and scream at the air, nor are any other multitude of erratic behaviors that make people uncomfortable. It’s not like private property where you can trespass someone and kick them out. Legally the transients have just as much right to be on Harbor Blvd as anyone else. Unless they’re committing a crime even the cops don’t have any legal grounds to remove them.

 

[gelatoni fan]

Does the country dump them there, or do they self-dump? Seems if someone has to live outside they would pick to be in a temperate climate. I didn't know buses drop homeless off in SoCal?

Cities all over the country regularly have homeless relocation programs. It's more like a few homeless on a grayhound bus with their tickets paid for by another city or county rather than an entire bus dropping off homeless though. There was a pretty big lawsuit a few years back where California cities sued Nevada cities for giving discharged mental hospital patients one way bus tickets into cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles. I actually have a friend who used to work in a job related to welfare for homeless in San Francisco and was regularly finding homeless people in the libraries that were given one way bus or train tickets from cities like Chicago. New York City also got some bad publicity just before the pandemic for sending its homeless to other states. But the amount of people sent in from other cities is a tiny portion of the total homeless in Socal with the majority being people who actually lived in the area before losing their homes due to economic circumstances.

 

[AndrewC]

Disney, a private company, has no standing to “sweep” Harbor Blvd, a public street, clear of transients. I think many overestimates Disney’s influence. It literally ends at that crack on the sidewalk at their property line.

Even the city of Anaheim, does not have that authority. It is not illegal to be homeless, nor is to yell and scream at the air, nor are any other multitude of erratic behaviors that make people uncomfortable. It’s not like private property where you can trespass someone and kick them out. Legally the transients have just as much right to be on Harbor Blvd as anyone else. Unless they’re committing a crime even the cops don’t have any legal grounds to remove them.

Right, but the police sure could make that area a pain to be in. The hotels surrounding the area can complain to the city (constantly) that the area needs to be improved and is "unsafe" and any number of things. Disney could do the same. While Disney might not be able to pay people to move the homeless off the streets, they certainly could influence the city to do something about it. While the city can't arrest them, they could hassle them anytime they were near Disney. I'm not saying those are the RIGHT solutions, I'm just saying I'm surprised they haven't been done.

I haven't been to vegas in awhile, but honestly I don't recall seeing any homeless on the actual strip, and I would have thought that would be a fairly prime spot for them to pass through and hang around. There are ways cities have to keep "high value" areas less affected.

I'm all for cities and states working to solve the initial reasons that cause it in the first place and for finding positive ways to bring people off the streets and back into supportive situations, but still, a little surprised something isn't being done...

 

[DLgal]

Disney, a private company, has no standing to “sweep” Harbor Blvd, a public street, clear of transients. I think many overestimates Disney’s influence. It literally ends at that crack on the sidewalk at their property line.

Even the city of Anaheim, does not have that authority. It is not illegal to be homeless, nor is to yell and scream at the air, nor are any other multitude of erratic behaviors that make people uncomfortable. It’s not like private property where you can trespass someone and kick them out. Legally the transients have just as much right to be on Harbor Blvd as anyone else. Unless they’re committing a crime even the cops don’t have any legal grounds to remove them.

It is actually against the law to do a lot of the things homeless people do, like sleep, sit, obstruct the sidewalk, etc, in public. So yes, there are laws and they can be enforced, but they often aren't.

 

[longboard55]

So what do we to to enforce the laws. Put them in prison. Who will pay for that.

 

[DLgal]

So what do we to to enforce the laws. Put them in prison. Who will pay for that.

Usually police will give them a lift to a local shelter for the night They do actually also write them tickets.

 

[RedVines2001]

It is actually against the law to do a lot of the things homeless people do, like sleep, sit, obstruct the sidewalk, etc, in public. So yes, there are laws and they can be enforced, but they often aren't.

Sit/lie laws were ruled unconstitutional by the 9th Circuit Court in 2018. So no, almost all those things are not illegal anymore in California.

Right, but the police sure could make that area a pain to be in. The hotels surrounding the area can complain to the city (constantly) that the area needs to be improved and is "unsafe" and any number of things. Disney could do the same. While Disney might not be able to pay people to move the homeless off the streets, they certainly could influence the city to do something about it. While the city can't arrest them, they could hassle them anytime they were near Disney. I'm not saying those are the RIGHT solutions, I'm just saying I'm surprised they haven't been done.

I haven't been to vegas in awhile, but honestly I don't recall seeing any homeless on the actual strip, and I would have thought that would be a fairly prime spot for them to pass through and hang around. There are ways cities have to keep "high value" areas less affected.

I'm all for cities and states working to solve the initial reasons that cause it in the first place and for finding positive ways to bring people off the streets and back into supportive situations, but still, a little surprised something isn't being done...

The current political climate in California is to decriminalize, well, crime, This goes directly against Disney’s interests in keeping Harbor Blvd “clean”. You can judge for yourself which side is more influential in that realm in Anaheim.

 

[DLgal]

Sit/lie laws were ruled unconstitutional by the 9th Circuit Court in 2018. So no, almost all those things are not illegal anymore in California.


The current political climate in California is to decriminalize, well, crime, This goes directly against Disney’s interests in keeping Harbor Blvd “clean”. You can judge for yourself which side is more influential in that realm in Anaheim.

Not quite true.

https://abc7.com/los-angeles-homeless-anti-camping-ordinance-mayor-eric-garcetti-crisis/10997250/
The ruling ONLY applies when there is NO OPTION for indoor shelter. There are indoor shelters with space all over the place. So, yes, localities CAN and DO draft and enforce anti homeless legislation. LA is just one example. The city I live in also prohibits sleeping on the streets. We don't have a shelter here, so the homeless are often picked up and driven to the nearest county operated one, which is in Santa Ana.

 

[RedVines2001]

Not quite true.

https://abc7.com/los-angeles-homeless-anti-camping-ordinance-mayor-eric-garcetti-crisis/10997250/
The ruling ONLY applies when there is NO OPTION for indoor shelter. There are indoor shelters with space all over the place. So, yes, localities CAN and DO draft and enforce anti homeless legislation. LA is just one example. The city I live in also prohibits sleeping on the streets. We don't have a shelter here, so the homeless are often picked up and driven to the nearest county operated one, which is in Santa Ana.

Yes that’s correct but that ruling also applies when shelters are at capacity. Anaheim does have shelters but I don’t think they have sit/lie ordinance. So I don’t think there’s anything for them to enforce on Harbour Blvd in the first place.