Click here to email Council Members and City Officials

Email addresses:
arianne.garcia@lacity.org,
councilmember.bonin@lacity.org,
chad.molnar@lacity.org,
krista.kline@lacity.org,
mayor.garcetti@lacity.org,
gita.oneill@lacity.org,
che.ramirez@lacity.org

Dear Council Members and City Officials:

I am writing to ask for your help and support in addressing an issue that is directly impacting the health and safety of our preschool and elementary school students in the area adjacent to Westside Neighborhood School (WNS) in Playa Vista.

Over the last week, there has been a dramatic increase in the magnitude of the RV dweller encampments along Coral Tree Place east of Alla Road. While there was a period of improvement over the summer, the encampment is again growing to a mix of fixed and mobile dwellings and their associated belongings that extend the length of the street and onto school property. We see a connection to the sudden increase of RV vehicle dwellers here with the recent action taken on Jefferson Blvd. The situation on Coral Tree is making it unsafe for our families to navigate with their children, and with school reopening on Wednesday, September 8, this is extremely concerning to us. The trash and other sanitation issues on the street, sidewalks, and parkway lawns have created a breeding ground for disease and rodent infestation, unleashed dogs wandering up and down the street, as well as unmasked individuals from the encampment now venturing onto school property, and evidence of some members of the encampment scaling our walls at night, breaking into school property, and lighting fires.

 

Parents and school employees have observed a number of troubling incidents and behaviors including:

  • Naked individuals walking the street in view of young children
  • Drug activity and dangerous unpredictable drug users (meth smoking/cooking)
  • Increasingly assertive/aggressive interactions with school staff and parents including blocking the right of way and obscene gestures
  • Public defecation
  • Large, off-leash dogs 
  • Fires caused by illegal tapping of power lines
  • Roads used to access schools blocked with belongings, vehicles, and trash
  • Dwellings that have gone from mobile to permanent
  • Encampments have led to rat infestations spreading diseases such as typhus, plague, hantavirus, West Nile
  • Encampment residents are not following COVID-19 protocols, including mask-wearing and social distancing (WNS gave them a box of masks to use)
  • At least one deceased individual among the vehicle dwellers last spring

We fully recognize the complexity of this social and humanitarian crisis that is impacting our area and beyond. We empathize with the extreme circumstances so many people are encountering in these difficult times. Homelessness and vehicle dwelling is a serious issue that we as a WNS community want to help work with government officials to find sustainable solutions for all involved. We view this with empathy and care deeply that government resources are allocated to create a meaningful and lasting solution. At the same time, we also recognize that the current situation with the vehicle dwellers on Coral Tree Place is not compatible with the health and safety of children attending an elementary school.

WNS has taken proactive steps, including paying for 24-hour security, adding security cameras and lighting, but we need your help to continue to direct City services to this situation, change the signage on Coral Tree that provides a pathway for LAPD to cite and remove serious offenders.  

We as parents, along with the leadership of the school, want to be part of the solution to this problem and look forward to working with you, your team, and City and County agencies on the next steps. Please empower LAPD to enforce the posted NO PARKING signs and move the RV dwellers to an area that isn’t adjacent to a PS-8th grade school. 

Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter and your support of our school community.

Sincerely,

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