L.A. City Council Moves to Clear Out Homeless Encampments near Tujunga Wash

By City News Service

The Los Angeles City Council today took steps to clear out homeless encampments in the vicinity of the Tujunga Wash.

The camps pose a threat to water quality and the public safety of the surrounding communities, according to an emergency motion introduced by San Fernando Valley-area Councilman Felipe Fuentes.

Under his unanimously approved motion, the city's General Services Department was directed to immediately install "no trespassing/loitering" signs and the city attorney was instructed to draft an ordinance banning the encampments.

City officials learned of the proliferation of the encampments at a Sunland-Tujunga homeless resource fair held Monday, Fuentes said. He said he toured the wash encampments and saw generators and five-gallon jugs of gasoline.

"We have determined there is a tremendous need ... to do the proper posting of the municipal code in the Tujunga Wash as we have determined there is a tremendous need to begin the clearance of the wash," he said.

In recent years, authorities and neighborhood groups have called for the camps to be cleared out, with police conducting raids to drive out transients seeking shelter in the wash, which is located at