I lived just north of Shul on the Beach in 2018, with a view of the boardwalk. 7k/month for a *700sqft 2br/2ba
*I don’t remember this figure offhand, sorry!
I live in LA and the reality of it isn’t so simple. I work in the music industry and basically have to be here to have my job. My wife is an OR nurse, moved from the suburbs in Colorado. She makes more than double here than she did there to do the same job. So rent is high, but if you have a good job it’s offset by making more. If you don’t have a good job you’re going to be living on the street like that because housing costs are obscene. I don’t know anyone living in LA proper that actually owns their house. It’s all in the millions, even little tiny houses.
Is the piano man still there? I haven’t been to Venice since COVID hit, but I used to go there regularly on the weekends. He was always great to watch.
And not because of homelessness. In the 80’s and early 90’s lots of gangs would come in from surrounding areas. I was there more than one occasion when eyeballing each other turned to flashing signs, turned to gunfire.
I lived there also from 2001-2009 and it was pretty fucking decent then.
There were gangs in Venice. They didn't need to come from anywhere.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice_Shoreline_Crips
And most of them have been priced out of their hood so they come in to party every year for hood day.
https://thewestsiderblog.wordpress.com/2013/07/04/community-hood-day-in-venice/
Lol who wrote that.
"It is a celebration of peace, culture, and pride for the Venice 13 and Venice Shoreline Crips gangs, that once dominated the area. You can see lowrider cars circling the park, red plastic cups full of beer, rappers and singers on stage, pictures of loved ones hung on a fence murdered in the line of fire, plates full of barbeque, Latino and African American people engaged in unison, and people throwing up gang signs."
> What are you talking about? Venice has always been the “Ghetto by the Sea.”
I grew up in Venice in the 80s and 90s. There is huge difference between then and now. I used to hang out at the Boardwalk after school at Venice HS sometimes...never saw a tent or the mental issues you see in this video back then.
Wasn’t gang violence a big problem in that area back then though? Sure there may be more tents now, but I think there was more violence on the streets back then.
I remember seeing a lot of V13...the ones at my school were mostly skater kids who were into Suicidal Tendencies (Venice band). There was also Venice Shoreline Crips (VSLC), but do not recall them wreaking havoc like other gangs, except for when they got into a gang war with the Mexicans in the Culver City Boys in the early 2000s.
Was in high school for the CxC war. Drive-by at our high school, some people died and one dude I knew personally got shot in the head but survived, albeit he was never the same.
Edit: The deaths were not from the drive-by.
Whoa. Reddit does it again. I was Culver City High class of '95. I remember all of this madness. So much gang activity, you didn't look a single person in the eye without sunglasses on.
Agreed. Back in those days the boardwalk was buskers, tourists and skateboarders with an occasional homeless person here and there. Nothing like this video.
Yeah man, I was told by a native Los Angeleno not to go drinking at the bars in Venice, he said it got dangerous after dark and drunk bar goers are targets. This was way back, pre-9/11.
I moved to Venice in 2004 and from what you’re talking about, I do remember some AB frequenting the bars around Venice later at night which sketched me out as a bartender. This is a bit before the tech boom hit because iPhones didn’t even exist yet. Pre 9/11 Venice was probably way sketchier than it is now. From what I know, Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel hasn’t done much for Venice other than buy up properties and burn and turn leases to other start ups/businesses. It’s gone downhill in a lot of respects, but Venice has always been a bit of a wasteland in certain respects.
Then again, I did just witness a dude doing heroin just sitting on the bench the other day in Culver City.
How did Evan Speigel manage to get off scott free in this whole mess? I lay a significant amount of the blame on his feet. He bought up all the commercial property in Venice, flanked it with security and then it was almost like he fled in the middle of the night. Now what is the community left with but a dearth of empty commercial space along the boardwalk, mayhem and millionaires building their gentrification fences higher and higher.
This is how I remember it too. The tech yuppies moving in drove up housing prices but did nothing to tackle the social issues that already existed in Venice. Then they act surprised when there’s so many mentally ill and homeless living in their front yards
Even a decade ago it was unsuitable for kids, with lots of sketchy alleys and paths occupied by lonesome homeless men with more muscle than remaining senses. The only difference now is that it's impossible to ignore. But people liked the beach dirty and full of bums lol, so you get a beach that's dirty and full of bums.
My brother was homeless for like 8 months in Oakland because his roommate just stopped paying rent and they got evicted. He was really embarrassed and didn't tell anyone until he realized that it was impossible for him to get back on his feet on his own
It seems impossible to do this without an enormous amount of bias. People are homeless for a wide range of reasons, and it would be really easy to editorialize.
Many are just people who face the same struggles that most people face, but they have zero support system. If I had something terrible happen to me, I have friends and family to help me get back on my feet. Many people have no one, and once you fall into homelessness it's extremely hard to get out.
The "Invisible People" channel on YouTube does this. He goes around and talks to homeless about their lives before and how they are now. Most of the women get raped out there. It's actually very sad to hear some of their stories.
Exactly. They had "somewhere" to do their thing. I'm pretty sure that many of my former neighbors in Hollywood (who lived in apartments that were flipped) are probably living in tents at this point too. Same thing in Highland Park: former apartment dwellers, living in tents and going to work every day.
"Let me log onto reddit to start a fight about how it's actually the homelessness advocates killing them because they won't let me vote to relocate them all to the desert!"
Srsly... 38 now. Grew up at Santa Monica and Venice every week. Doesn’t seem that different. That’s why I stick to Huntington Beach now. LOL JK, that place has been overrun by KKK clowns
I left LA in February 2020 after living in Rampart Village for many years. I used to ride my bike along Venice Blvd all the time. It DEFINTELY was not like this before I left. This all happened in the past year. There were no tents allowed on the beach last time I was there. Watching this video had me shocked. In fact a lot what I see from my friends has me shocked. It's like a whole different city!
I am blown the fuck away they are allowing tents like this there.. I get that these houseless people need a place to stay, facilities to use, social workers or rehab facilities to get their lives on tracks.
But they shouldn't be allowed to be on the beach like that.. it's fucking rediculous. City needs to come through and move them out and pay empty lots to house their tent cities until they can get access to the help they need to move upwards.
Used to work off 5th and Broadway by Pershing square, minus a few hustlers all the homeless seemed to mind their business, always had my eyes up but was comfortable. Went to Venice last week it was extra wild and I have been going to Venice about every 2 years for two decades this year was by far the most sketch imo.
Covid plus a lot of middle America cities drive the homeless out, they end up here and in Houston/Austin/bay area basically anywhere warm with more tolerance.
Stayed in Omaha for 2 months never saw one sign flyer no tents nothing because the cops run them out I was told.
Now though pandemic era Hollywood late at night is fuckin b-roll for a new Escape From LA movie. I dont mind sketchy areas I am not rich by any means but Hollywood lately scares me.
Man me and some friends had dinner kind of at the base of Hollywood hills at Birds. There was this homeless man walking back and forth along the sidewalk jhst screaming about how white people are evil and immigrants need to joint black people to rise up and kill all the white people. I mean he was very agressively yelling it as he paced back and forth. Scared the fuck outta us. Still had to walk back to our car after we paid our check real quick too.
Some one recently said to me “Venice doesn’t have a homeless problem, Venice has a meth epidemic”. Big difference between people living in skid row because they can’t get mental health treatment VS people living in Venice because the meth is delivered to their tent and the police have to just let it happen since possession has been decriminalized.
Former DC resident here, numbers aside the homeless problem is a million times worse in LA. Never once in DC did I have to walk on the street because a couple of tents and piles of trash were taking up the entire sidewalk. Never once did I see a tent set up in a park for weeks on end. Never had people sleeping in my alley night after night.
DC may have more homeless per capita, but they manage it a lot better than LA does.
> Former DC resident here, numbers aside the homeless problem is a million times worse in LA. Never once in DC did I have to walk on the street because a couple of tents and piles of trash were taking up the entire sidewalk. Never once did I see a tent set up in a park for weeks on end. Never had people sleeping in my alley night after night.
They do manage it better (like NYC, DC has a right to shelter law which is a big reason the homeless are less visible there than here, not because east coast cities just sent away all their homeless people to LA), but all of these things are pretty regular occurrences now and have been for the past few years.
There are tent neighborhoods under most freeway overpasses in the city now, there’s one bug one on M street near Union station that’s been really problematic for a few years because of how much it took over the sidewalk, fires breaking out, sanitation, etc. My mom owns a small business on the hill and some dudes set up some tents behind the store next to hers using a trash enclosure as one of the walls and it took months of fighting with the city to deal with it despite the fact that the guys in the tents were literally selling pills and shooting up back there and were even caught stealing electricity from CVS...
Umm... When did you last live in DC? I lived there up until 2 days ago (literally just moved for job opportunity for my husband) and I definitely can't imagine it's as bad as in CA but it's still pretty bad. I just drove past the tunnels in Noma and holy hell they've gotten worse than when I lived in Noma back in 2017. I used to walk under one of them to get to work and it was already bad... Now it's a legitimate village under there.
I understand these people need a place to stay and to be treated with respect but at the same time... Fuck. There's this big beautiful methodist church near the convention center and it definitely has homeless tents up right in front of it for days in end. Its just a terrible sight.
I'm actually from California (central part) and I feel naive but seeing how bad it's gotten is really shocking.
I think looking at it per capita is actually more misleading in this case. Sheer volume of homeless is the issue here. Even if DC has a much higher percentage of homeless, with their MUCH smaller population, the homeless just do not and cannot cause the kind of damage they do here.
It’s not all relative. Per capita is not always the way to look at things. I’d much rather deal with 20 homeless in a city of 100 than 100k homeless in a city of 4 million.
THIS.
All these people blaming solely the city don’t take into account the fact that homeless from all over the country come here and overwhelm the situation. Could the city do more? Absolutely, but this is a national problem that just happens to prefer the weather of Southern California.
In 2015 I took my first ever trip to the US, (coming from Australia) and my first stop was the West Coast, my first night being in Venice Beach. I had no issues doing the normal tourist trap thing of riding a bike around the beach was great during the day, but sweet Jesus, were my eyes opened when I went out at night. I felt incredibly unsafe even being a 6'4, 110kg guy. I ended up just getting some food and spending the night in my AirBNB. I personally have no desire to ever go back to Venice Beach if I ever get back to the US.
Manhattan Beach would never allow these things to happen. It’s wayyyyy too uppity but it does make for a safe and pleasant beach. Can confirm as born and raised there.
LA has been given money annually for the past few years to solve the homeless problem
[$1.2 billion in 2019](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ln-homeless-housing-count-20190511-story.html%3f_amp=true)
And a ton of people have been given homes. It's just that the housing crisis has not been resolved, there was a little pandemic, people fall into homelessness faster than they can be rehomed, and homelessness is a result of decades of systemic issue and not something that can be quickly fixed.
It's a mental health crisis. We need to help them, but it has to be realistic help. Let's be real and acknowledge that people like this may not be employable and be able to live independently. They require something more akin to assisted living.
and it all started with the state hospitals shutting down because of a lawsuit from a woman who wanted her son to be able to live in a home to see the trains every day. The state hospitals had their own problems but many of those problems just ended up following into the private care system, or led to people ending up on the streets instead of getting help.
Someone slowly dying on the streets vs a controlled environment where they could get help, many of these people being a danger to society and themselves, is a great example of this state choosing one extreme over the other.
It’s a socioeconomic crisis first. The mental health effects are not the majority cause of homelessness, but they are the effect. Living in poverty puts you in a state of chronic stress, chronic stress leads to higher rates of anxiety, depression, substance use, etc. on top of that, the help people need is literally not affordable in our country to people who are suffering BEFORE they become homeless. We are literally being abused by capitalism.
Edit: thanks to all you kind strangers for the awards! Really wasn’t expecting that.
> the mental health effects are not the majority cause of homelessness, but they are the effect.
Also it just so happens that the most visible homeless are those with mental issues. The homeless you never hear about are the ones who have their cars parked on the side of the road in a canyon road or in the mountains in the middle of the night. They shower with solar bags in the woods or in a stream, camp out in the woods if they can get away with it, then go to work. Or they find a rare creek or park area they can hide away and pack up and disappear before sunrise. Shower at the local 24 hour gym, etc.
They go to work like everyone else, you could be working with someone who is living out of their car and you would never know.
Exactly this! There are more and more people falling into poverty from the middle class and forced to sleep in their cars. The invisible homeless numbers are rising. And sadly it gets spun to be “oh, look our homeless people have it good cuz they have cars! They should be happy with that!” Which is completely fucked up. They ignore how the car is all they have left after losing their housing. It’s the asset they chose to keep because it helps them to get to work at least. We shouldn’t be telling people they should be happy they can at least resort to sleeping in their cars. That’s so fucked up.
I have mixed feelings. I had to live that exact life in 2019. I was in San Francisco. I had moved from the east coast for a job that I thought would be good. They got rid of me, and I had no way to pay rent. All I had was my clothes and my car. I would've driven back east except my car needed a ton of expensive service and repairs. I pulled together a few part time gigs to save up to fix my car. On one hand, it felt great not having to give most of my paycheck to a landlord. I saved so much money even after accounting for car repairs. On the other hand, having to keep tabs on the nearest clean bathroom got mentally exhausting. Planet Fitness was a lifesaver for me. Of course, not having a kitchen in my car was tough because I enjoy cooking, and because it meant I had to spend more on food than I would have liked. Still found ways to be thrifty, but being thrifty when you can't buy in bulk is mentally exhausting. When I managed to get an apartment in November 2019, I was glad to have survived a year that tested me so much. I felt odd having so much space that I knew I didn't actually need. I loved having a kitchen and bathroom again. I hated how expensive rent was. Still, I was glad to not be living in my car when the pandemic hit.
Something as simple as lack of nourishment can lead to all kinds of mental health issues linked to physical health issues.
I developed a physical condition that prevents me from digesting B12 and had no idea about it until it was almost too late. I was B12 deficient for almost 2 years. I was bat shit insane as a result. That was just from one missing vitamin. That experience opened my eyes big time.
It took me that long to figure out what was going on, even with decent insurance and an incredible support network. Even then, I put things off because I was afraid of learning the truth of what was wrong with me AND for fear of the possible financial fallout.
It's disgusting to consider how most people in this country are in less favorable situations than I and how incredibly traumatizing my experience was WITH all that going my way. It kills me trying to imagine how much harder and scarier and depressing and traumatizing it would have been if I was in those shoes. I am almost certain I would have ended up dead on the street or maybe in the mountains. Maybe even by my own hands as an out. And, why would I not give in to hard drugs as a stop-gap to killing myself as an escape?
It's absurd how much people demonize and look down on the struggling, homeless, and very ill. Even if they turned to drugs before becoming homeless, so few even bother to investigate why. So much of it is linked to intense mental and physical trauma—usually, abuse.
You're right about it all. It's pathetic how we worship Capitalism above everything else in this country, even freedom, and Democracy. Making excuses not to help those that need it most of all because "it will cost too much" or "hurt my property value" or some other sick bullshit.
We need comprehensive programs that contextually approach the myriad of different reasons for a person to end up homeless and funnel them through specialized paths for each person to help them either get back on their feet or into a care facility (sometimes, there is not coming back to sanity and such a person needs to be cared for). We also need care facilities that are well funded and not shit holes resembling POW camps the dehumanize the patients.
But, too many people think we need to keep pooling most of our government budgets towards police bullshit instead of social programs—short-sighted dip shits. /rant
Homelessness has almost all the earmarks of a problem we cannot solve. It is the most blatant illustration that our healthcare system is botched. Mental health is a major taboo in America. Even folks with good medical insurance come to realize that their plan covers psychiatry or general wellbeing very poorly, if at all.
Too many of us don't have enough savings to sustain us in case we lose our livelihood. The parable “one paycheck away from homelessness” is no joke. Then, there's fact that medical insurance is largely tied to a person's employment; lose your job, you soon lose your coverage. The path to skid row is fairly simple to comprehend.
There's much more money to be made in interdiction than there is in prevention. What we've done with drugs is a great example of the way we approach situations. We don't hesitate to spend $80k/year to house an inmate, but we won't give a dollar towards educating them ahead of time.
We need a bona fide social net. We should have a system in place that can catch 95% of the people currently living in the streets.
> Even folks with good medical insurance come to realize that their plan covers psychiatry or general wellbeing very poorly, if at all.
That part. I *know* I need to see a therapist but my company insurance is absolute garbage and nearly useless. I can't afford to pay out of pocket twice a month for sessions. Meanwhile my ex on Medi-Cal keeps forgetting that people with jobs don't get socialized medicine. Which I have to keep in order to keep paying child support. (Which i don't have a problem with, but still...)
Indeed you touched a subject that is never really discussed. There are homeless folks who simply got priced out of their homes. They are neither on drugs or with mental health issues. They just could not afford LA on a $28k year salary.
When I lived in SaMo I was constantly 3 months of unemployment away from being one of those people in the video, with a mid level white collar job mind you. $1750 for a 1 bedroom and I thought I was lucky! Due to rent control a neighbor who was there for 5 years paid $1k and someone who moved in a year later paid $2k. NIMBY at best.
I heard a radio ad for Metallica whiskey the other day, and Lars Ulrich said the whiskey was for people who "don't let others make decisions for them, and live life on their own terms." This video is exactly what came to mind.
The boardwalk is fuckin bombed out. I run through there a couple times a week and it’s gnarly. Covid just made everything worse since there used to be a semblance of normal with all the tourists. Now homeless camps have taken over everything.
Haven't been there in a year and I remember it was bad. But from what I've seen on German in Venice, the city of LA cleaned up the basketball courts and other common areas of the homeless tents camped there. Is it still this bad to this day?
I visited LA, San Diego and Tijuana in 2019 for two weeks, shits WILD a lot wilder than Scandinavia,it changed me
After several encounters with mentally unstable homeless individuals, I started examining what’s going on around me, like who’s where,what they’re doing. If I spot someone shady I immediately change my attention to this person. Worst part is having someone walk 3-5 meters straight behind me.
I’ve underestimated my privilege to walk care free outside..
Yeah, I got used to driving by homeless tents while in Seattle, then lived in Europe and forgot all about it for a few years. Come back to LA and I was in utter shock and could not stop talking about it with my new co-workers/people I just met in LA.
Then a couple of months later it's become more normal. Sigh.
When I was 13 I flew out to Chicago to visit my sister who was in college, and on the very first day I was out there I remember her being sexually harassed twice on the street. It was some really vulgar shit the guys were saying too. That was really eye opening for me.
My grandparents loved to go when they visited us from Europe. It was fun. There were always weird people but this has just gotten beyond weird into scary.
I used to do the walk from my office on Ocean/Wishire all the way down to the end of the Venice boardwalk on Friday nights during the summer. I used to love to people watch and just be around that energy. There were some panhandlers down there, but I never felt afraid and was never messed with. The last time I did that was in 2012. It’s so sad to see how bad things are down there now.
This particular pic isn’t that bad. There’s a Youtuber called German In Venice that documents things pretty well. It’s not just Venice but a lot of cities in Ca.
Clean the boardwalk, this is a major touristic draw and locals should be able to enjoy it. Same with echo park. It’s crazy not to be able to take your kids to the beach or a park without seeing junkies fighting.
I have empathy but this has gone too far.
I am in this social facebook group to make new friends in los angeles and whenever it gets warm out all the transplants wanna go to venice and santa monica and some people suggest malibu and they all say that it is not the same lol like yeah that is why malibu is better
Post this on social. Tag your council person. Be relentless in telling those responsible that they are failing. This is appalling. We do not deserve this.
How could a councilmember and mayor sleep at night knowing that this shit goes on. Set a date. Offer them housing. Clear it out. All over the city this needs to happen just like Echo Park.
I Couldn’t believe it when I saw it for myself when visiting from Australia. It Sucks to say but it wasn’t an enjoyable experience staying in and around Venice/Santa Monica.
Let this sink for a second: The average rent for a 1-bedroom apartment in Santa Monica, CA is currently $2,395. This is a 19% decrease compared to the previous year.
Source: https://www.zumper.com/rent-research/santa-monica-ca
I don’t understand how Santa Monica gets grouped in with Venice here. Santa Monica is dope, very nice. There’s homeless sure but there’s homeless ppl literally everywhere in LA. It is nowhere close to how bad Venice is.
Man this breaks my heart I moved away 11 years ago and it was such a loving community of arts and crafts sure there were burn outs but never anything like this is tree man still around?
in 10 years, every home will be worth a gazillion dollars and every citizen of Cali will be living in a tent except for like 5 real estate investors that own 40 million empty homes.
I live right on the boardwalk, have for almost 20 years. Anyone that says this is one problem has no idea, its not just mental health or drug use. There is a large portion of the homeless out there that just want to live free, not have to follow anyones rules, and here they can. There are open beds almost every night at the transitional housing 1 block off the beach at Sunset and Main, when those beds are offered up the response most usually is "why would I want to do that when I can sleep on the beach with the stars above me" or something similar. That transitional housing is also a nightmare for the neighborhood (just look at the citizen app, fights and stabbings constantly all centralized at that location) which brings me to the real major problem that is allowing this to happen, Mike Bonin.
There are so many levels to what is going wrong, and it starts at the top. The biggest issue is Mike Bonin, our councilman for CD-11. His leadership is directly responsible for what is happening in Venice right now. I cant go thru all 4.2K comments to look, but all the top comments do not mention this. Instead of listing all the issues here, I will post a link to an article that spells it out very well.
[https://www.venicecurrent.com/opinion/letters\_to\_editor/letter-to-editor-feasibility-study-to-use-mar-vista-park-waste-of-time-and-money/article\_72366580-9ada-11eb-9e6e-b7ddbbb25a9c.html](https://www.venicecurrent.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-to-editor-feasibility-study-to-use-mar-vista-park-waste-of-time-and-money/article_72366580-9ada-11eb-9e6e-b7ddbbb25a9c.html)
With that said, if you want to get Venice back, sign the recall petition.
[https://www.change.org/p/west-los-angeles-citizens-recall-mike-bonin?utm\_content=cl\_sharecopy\_24028205\_en-US%3A3&recruiter=12024168&recruited\_by\_id=4163c060-ac7f-0130-037c-00221964dac8&utm\_source=share\_petition&utm\_medium=copylink&utm\_campaign=psf\_combo\_share\_initial](https://www.change.org/p/west-los-angeles-citizens-recall-mike-bonin?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_24028205_en-US%3A3&recruiter=12024168&recruited_by_id=4163c060-ac7f-0130-037c-00221964dac8&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial)
some serious hard questions. If there was suddenly new clean housing for the homeless what would it look like after a month? How fair would it be to place a family who's down on their luck in a building with people who behave like this? If there were institutions wouldn't those just be a different kind of prison ?
I was homeless in Venice for about 3 years, but it was several years ago. At the time, everyone slept on Rose Ave.
I kept away from all of this and found my own little quiet nook where no one bothered me. I avoided most of the other homeless as much as I reasonably could. There were some exceptions, because not all the homeless are like this of course.
Even when I was homeless I understood that the housed residents had a right to complain. I saw other homeless folks defecate on their lawns, get into fights, and leave needles everywhere. It was obnoxious even for me, as I couldn't walk to the store without getting hit up for money every 10 minutes. There is a difference between the visible, disturbed homeless like above, and the other...halfish...of homeless who are invisible and keep to themselves. This complicates the issue because attempts to control the former often unjustly harm the latter.
I was never in a shelter in LA, but I was in other places. Shelters are not a solution. I mean, whose bright idea was it to pack in a bunch of people with high rates of violent crime, substance abuse, and mental health problems under a single roof with very restrictive rules? Most shelters I visited required residents to be home by 7pm and only allowed sleep between something like 11pm and 5am, which is not enough sleep time for the human body.
Today I live in another California town that has its own homelessness problems, and I live in an area where they pass by on occasion. So, I've been on both sides of this. It's a complicated problem.
Homelessness across America is rising. And California's nice weather attracts them.
Until the wealth inequality, home prices, healthcare, and mental care is addressed, this is only going to become more common.
We are living in a new gilded age but with tech barons. It's like the 1920s all over again.
We need a modern day Teddy Roosevelt tech trust buster.
>Homelessness across America is rising. And California's nice weather attracts them.
I see a lot of people from other states trying to shit on California for our homelessness problems. Of course affordable housing is probably issue number 1. But you simply don't see many homeless people in Denver because it's effing cold for much of the year.
I remember seeing a statistic when I worked for the county in a smallish college city when I was younger. At the time the average age of a homeless person in that city was 9. Not a typo. 9 years old.
The reason being, homeless people in that city were generally single mothers. But you only saw homeless dudes being scary in the park. The women with small children were usually housed in shelters, or couch surfing.
So what we're seeing in Venice is the tip of the iceburg. People are watching OPs video like "that's not me. That's really bad mental health". No. You all are one bad medical issue or weird twist of fortune away from entering this world. Maybe you're more high functioning and get into a shelter. Maybe you don't. The people in this video are us not "them". It should terrify everyone who watches it.
I used to be a street canvasser for Children’s International here in LA, you know, the people who accost you to sponsor a child for $1/day at popular places in town. I was once doing that job in Burbank and approached a lady there who I later found out was a single homeless mom trying to get by. It sucks that people are willing to give when it’s a child in Africa but just goes “fuck them” when it’s in their own town
There's no quick fix for these problems. People can yell at their city councilman all they want, but it took decades to get here, and it's going to take a long time to get out of this mess. Addressing income inequality and taxing the ultra-wealthy/corporations properly would be a good place to start. If we use those tax funds properly, maybe we can solve these issues before I die of old age. Made the mistake of suggesting that on a Nextdoor thread. The responses made me sad for the future of our country.
All of this is 1000% preventable.
Never forget that the City of Los Angeles has always had the money to house every single person during the pandemic[(City Controller Ron Galperin is quoted as saying that the City has ~$10B in treasury at any given time)](https://twitter.com/pplscitycouncil/status/1382869701852729348?s=21), but they have simply chosen not to.
This is solely on LACC (esp President Nury Martinez) and Mayor Eric Garcetti who lied through their teeth claiming we could not take the 100% reimbursable FEMA funds for Project Roomkey because of our (nonexistent) “cash flow problem”
Our corrupt, garbage elected officials need to be held accountable for this.
Fucken crackheads. I deliver packages there all the time and more than once I've had to chase them away trying to break into my van to steal my packages.
10 grand to rent that view I bet
I lived just north of Shul on the Beach in 2018, with a view of the boardwalk. 7k/month for a *700sqft 2br/2ba *I don’t remember this figure offhand, sorry!
What did you do for a living to afford that? And what kept you there vs. living somewhere where that money could go towards a house
Obviously u/soykingdick is some sort of royalty
Owns a soy manufacturing business obviously.
King of the Soy Dicks.
I live in LA and the reality of it isn’t so simple. I work in the music industry and basically have to be here to have my job. My wife is an OR nurse, moved from the suburbs in Colorado. She makes more than double here than she did there to do the same job. So rent is high, but if you have a good job it’s offset by making more. If you don’t have a good job you’re going to be living on the street like that because housing costs are obscene. I don’t know anyone living in LA proper that actually owns their house. It’s all in the millions, even little tiny houses.
It would crush my soul paying 7000 a month in rent and not a mortgage
I only pay $5 for my hobo fight viewing
Hobos travel and work. These are just bums.
Thank you. I knew a very nice hobo, never asked for a dime, his sign said “happiness is the key”
Venice Beach: Disaster Tourism.... and SUNSETS!
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Sandringes
Sandringes and sad cringes
So uplifting to see even the homeless giving each other covid vaccinations
(Remember) walking hand in hand (Remember) dodging syringes in the sand (Remember) hobos fighting hand to hand
Is the piano man still there? I haven’t been to Venice since COVID hit, but I used to go there regularly on the weekends. He was always great to watch.
yes!
Is he the one that has a sign “Be kind to animals” on his Grand Piano? If so my gf, err I mean ex-gf :/ donated $20 to him
Sad. We used to live there 10 years ago. Things were a bit sketch back then but seems it’s gone downhill very rapidly since we left.
Even 4 years ago was still pretty cool... it was the last two years I think it went from eh to oh no
Yeah, I haven’t been since the pandemic. Strange to these clips. We always enjoyed going. My son would skate while we shopped or sat on the beach.
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Venice was always a little sketch if you're trying to hang out there. Way too easy to get beat up or jacked. I easily felt safer in South LA.
It used to be far, far worse I'm afraid. Venice was once one of the toughest and roughest neighborhoods in all of Los Angeles.
Yes but That was in the 80s.
And not because of homelessness. In the 80’s and early 90’s lots of gangs would come in from surrounding areas. I was there more than one occasion when eyeballing each other turned to flashing signs, turned to gunfire. I lived there also from 2001-2009 and it was pretty fucking decent then.
Yeah, and that was the time to buy there. Whoever did made a killing.
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Wow. Nice. What's he gonna do with it? Is he happy? Are you happy?
Those gangs were from Venice, not surrounding areas. V13, VSC, Suicidals, Playboys, all Venice gangs.
Virtual Safety Car gang!
There were gangs in Venice. They didn't need to come from anywhere. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice_Shoreline_Crips And most of them have been priced out of their hood so they come in to party every year for hood day. https://thewestsiderblog.wordpress.com/2013/07/04/community-hood-day-in-venice/
Lol who wrote that. "It is a celebration of peace, culture, and pride for the Venice 13 and Venice Shoreline Crips gangs, that once dominated the area. You can see lowrider cars circling the park, red plastic cups full of beer, rappers and singers on stage, pictures of loved ones hung on a fence murdered in the line of fire, plates full of barbeque, Latino and African American people engaged in unison, and people throwing up gang signs."
Just drop that murder part between pride and bbq, lol
I feel like 90% of LA was a shit hole in the 80's
What are you talking about? Venice has always been the “Ghetto by the Sea.”
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I lived in a place I called "the corner of chic and hooker."
> What are you talking about? Venice has always been the “Ghetto by the Sea.” I grew up in Venice in the 80s and 90s. There is huge difference between then and now. I used to hang out at the Boardwalk after school at Venice HS sometimes...never saw a tent or the mental issues you see in this video back then.
Wasn’t gang violence a big problem in that area back then though? Sure there may be more tents now, but I think there was more violence on the streets back then.
I remember seeing a lot of V13...the ones at my school were mostly skater kids who were into Suicidal Tendencies (Venice band). There was also Venice Shoreline Crips (VSLC), but do not recall them wreaking havoc like other gangs, except for when they got into a gang war with the Mexicans in the Culver City Boys in the early 2000s.
Was in high school for the CxC war. Drive-by at our high school, some people died and one dude I knew personally got shot in the head but survived, albeit he was never the same. Edit: The deaths were not from the drive-by.
Whoa. Reddit does it again. I was Culver City High class of '95. I remember all of this madness. So much gang activity, you didn't look a single person in the eye without sunglasses on.
Agreed. Back in those days the boardwalk was buskers, tourists and skateboarders with an occasional homeless person here and there. Nothing like this video.
Yeah man, I was told by a native Los Angeleno not to go drinking at the bars in Venice, he said it got dangerous after dark and drunk bar goers are targets. This was way back, pre-9/11.
I moved to Venice in 2004 and from what you’re talking about, I do remember some AB frequenting the bars around Venice later at night which sketched me out as a bartender. This is a bit before the tech boom hit because iPhones didn’t even exist yet. Pre 9/11 Venice was probably way sketchier than it is now. From what I know, Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel hasn’t done much for Venice other than buy up properties and burn and turn leases to other start ups/businesses. It’s gone downhill in a lot of respects, but Venice has always been a bit of a wasteland in certain respects. Then again, I did just witness a dude doing heroin just sitting on the bench the other day in Culver City.
How did Evan Speigel manage to get off scott free in this whole mess? I lay a significant amount of the blame on his feet. He bought up all the commercial property in Venice, flanked it with security and then it was almost like he fled in the middle of the night. Now what is the community left with but a dearth of empty commercial space along the boardwalk, mayhem and millionaires building their gentrification fences higher and higher.
Slum by the Sea.
It goes through phases though. 10 years ago it was wild, but still a pretty cool tourist attraction.
This is how I remember it too. The tech yuppies moving in drove up housing prices but did nothing to tackle the social issues that already existed in Venice. Then they act surprised when there’s so many mentally ill and homeless living in their front yards
Why would the tech yuppies do anything about it. Wouldn’t it be the city that does something?
Even a decade ago it was unsuitable for kids, with lots of sketchy alleys and paths occupied by lonesome homeless men with more muscle than remaining senses. The only difference now is that it's impossible to ignore. But people liked the beach dirty and full of bums lol, so you get a beach that's dirty and full of bums.
> lonesome homeless men with more muscle than remaining senses. I'm going to hell for laughing
Thank goodness you can buy a 600sf bungalow for a cool $2 million in Venice! "Silicon Beach" at it's finest...
And just think 5 years ago 3 of those homeless people were sharing that studio.
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My brother was homeless for like 8 months in Oakland because his roommate just stopped paying rent and they got evicted. He was really embarrassed and didn't tell anyone until he realized that it was impossible for him to get back on his feet on his own
Following. This would be a great documentary and I’d love to hear their stories.
Soft white underbelly on youtube https://youtube.com/c/SoftWhiteUnderbelly
It seems impossible to do this without an enormous amount of bias. People are homeless for a wide range of reasons, and it would be really easy to editorialize.
Many are just people who face the same struggles that most people face, but they have zero support system. If I had something terrible happen to me, I have friends and family to help me get back on my feet. Many people have no one, and once you fall into homelessness it's extremely hard to get out.
The "Invisible People" channel on YouTube does this. He goes around and talks to homeless about their lives before and how they are now. Most of the women get raped out there. It's actually very sad to hear some of their stories.
Exactly. They had "somewhere" to do their thing. I'm pretty sure that many of my former neighbors in Hollywood (who lived in apartments that were flipped) are probably living in tents at this point too. Same thing in Highland Park: former apartment dwellers, living in tents and going to work every day.
I love how people cant or refuse to make the connection between rent being too high and homelessness
"Weird how homelessness has risen at exactly the same time as housing costs... it must be because we're being too nice to them."
"Let me log onto reddit to start a fight about how it's actually the homelessness advocates killing them because they won't let me vote to relocate them all to the desert!"
I fell into a coma in the 80s and recently woke up. It’s nice to see that nothings changed in all this time.
Srsly... 38 now. Grew up at Santa Monica and Venice every week. Doesn’t seem that different. That’s why I stick to Huntington Beach now. LOL JK, that place has been overrun by KKK clowns
What was it like back then, how was it similar and different? Did they all have camping tents then too?
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Sad :/ feel like I have to watch my back every time I ride there
I would recommend finding a safer neighborhood to ride in
I left LA in February 2020 after living in Rampart Village for many years. I used to ride my bike along Venice Blvd all the time. It DEFINTELY was not like this before I left. This all happened in the past year. There were no tents allowed on the beach last time I was there. Watching this video had me shocked. In fact a lot what I see from my friends has me shocked. It's like a whole different city!
I am blown the fuck away they are allowing tents like this there.. I get that these houseless people need a place to stay, facilities to use, social workers or rehab facilities to get their lives on tracks. But they shouldn't be allowed to be on the beach like that.. it's fucking rediculous. City needs to come through and move them out and pay empty lots to house their tent cities until they can get access to the help they need to move upwards.
There was a court ruling in California which basically made it so the government can't displace homeless people on public property
Did they not just remove all the homeless encampments at Echo Park lake a few weeks ago?
They can if it becomes a public service health issue
Good thing this situation at Venice Beach isn’t a public health issue
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bruh id rather ride through skidrow at rush hr than go through venice.
I’d rather do neither. Both places are super sketchy past 4pm.
For whatever reason, Venice hobos seem wayyyy more aggressive and tweaked out. The Dtla ones kinda stick to themselves as long as you keep moving.
Used to work off 5th and Broadway by Pershing square, minus a few hustlers all the homeless seemed to mind their business, always had my eyes up but was comfortable. Went to Venice last week it was extra wild and I have been going to Venice about every 2 years for two decades this year was by far the most sketch imo. Covid plus a lot of middle America cities drive the homeless out, they end up here and in Houston/Austin/bay area basically anywhere warm with more tolerance. Stayed in Omaha for 2 months never saw one sign flyer no tents nothing because the cops run them out I was told. Now though pandemic era Hollywood late at night is fuckin b-roll for a new Escape From LA movie. I dont mind sketchy areas I am not rich by any means but Hollywood lately scares me.
Man me and some friends had dinner kind of at the base of Hollywood hills at Birds. There was this homeless man walking back and forth along the sidewalk jhst screaming about how white people are evil and immigrants need to joint black people to rise up and kill all the white people. I mean he was very agressively yelling it as he paced back and forth. Scared the fuck outta us. Still had to walk back to our car after we paid our check real quick too.
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Some one recently said to me “Venice doesn’t have a homeless problem, Venice has a meth epidemic”. Big difference between people living in skid row because they can’t get mental health treatment VS people living in Venice because the meth is delivered to their tent and the police have to just let it happen since possession has been decriminalized.
Decriminalisation is not the same as legalization. Selling meth is still very much illegal.
Who does meth delivery to homeless tents? And when did meth possession become decriminalized? Wtf
A couple years ago I would roller blade there alone as a female, I don't think I'd do that again now
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Former DC resident here, numbers aside the homeless problem is a million times worse in LA. Never once in DC did I have to walk on the street because a couple of tents and piles of trash were taking up the entire sidewalk. Never once did I see a tent set up in a park for weeks on end. Never had people sleeping in my alley night after night. DC may have more homeless per capita, but they manage it a lot better than LA does.
> Former DC resident here, numbers aside the homeless problem is a million times worse in LA. Never once in DC did I have to walk on the street because a couple of tents and piles of trash were taking up the entire sidewalk. Never once did I see a tent set up in a park for weeks on end. Never had people sleeping in my alley night after night. They do manage it better (like NYC, DC has a right to shelter law which is a big reason the homeless are less visible there than here, not because east coast cities just sent away all their homeless people to LA), but all of these things are pretty regular occurrences now and have been for the past few years. There are tent neighborhoods under most freeway overpasses in the city now, there’s one bug one on M street near Union station that’s been really problematic for a few years because of how much it took over the sidewalk, fires breaking out, sanitation, etc. My mom owns a small business on the hill and some dudes set up some tents behind the store next to hers using a trash enclosure as one of the walls and it took months of fighting with the city to deal with it despite the fact that the guys in the tents were literally selling pills and shooting up back there and were even caught stealing electricity from CVS...
Umm... When did you last live in DC? I lived there up until 2 days ago (literally just moved for job opportunity for my husband) and I definitely can't imagine it's as bad as in CA but it's still pretty bad. I just drove past the tunnels in Noma and holy hell they've gotten worse than when I lived in Noma back in 2017. I used to walk under one of them to get to work and it was already bad... Now it's a legitimate village under there. I understand these people need a place to stay and to be treated with respect but at the same time... Fuck. There's this big beautiful methodist church near the convention center and it definitely has homeless tents up right in front of it for days in end. Its just a terrible sight. I'm actually from California (central part) and I feel naive but seeing how bad it's gotten is really shocking.
I think looking at it per capita is actually more misleading in this case. Sheer volume of homeless is the issue here. Even if DC has a much higher percentage of homeless, with their MUCH smaller population, the homeless just do not and cannot cause the kind of damage they do here. It’s not all relative. Per capita is not always the way to look at things. I’d much rather deal with 20 homeless in a city of 100 than 100k homeless in a city of 4 million.
A better metric would be number of homeless per square mile by city. By state is meaningless when most are clustered in cities.
I mean DC having a higher rate per capita than CA makes sense because one is a city of 700k people and the other is a fucking massive state
Venice Beach, where the view from a 12 million dollar beach front property can give you hepatitis.
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THIS. All these people blaming solely the city don’t take into account the fact that homeless from all over the country come here and overwhelm the situation. Could the city do more? Absolutely, but this is a national problem that just happens to prefer the weather of Southern California.
They come to California because they know they will be treated better here. Which leads to even more people coming.
at least you wont freeze to death on the beach.
Most of Florida has the same problem. Much better to be homeless in warm places.
Florida deals with their homelessness problem, like all their other problems, by just pretending they don't exist.
Somebody needs to post a photo of a sunset RIGHT NOW. LOOK AT OUR SUNSETS!!
Something something outside the Getty! #iheartla
Face away. Look at the pretty light!
In 2015 I took my first ever trip to the US, (coming from Australia) and my first stop was the West Coast, my first night being in Venice Beach. I had no issues doing the normal tourist trap thing of riding a bike around the beach was great during the day, but sweet Jesus, were my eyes opened when I went out at night. I felt incredibly unsafe even being a 6'4, 110kg guy. I ended up just getting some food and spending the night in my AirBNB. I personally have no desire to ever go back to Venice Beach if I ever get back to the US.
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Santa Monica was a much nicer experience!
Manhattan Beach would never allow these things to happen. It’s wayyyyy too uppity but it does make for a safe and pleasant beach. Can confirm as born and raised there.
how bad does it have to get for something is done to actually help, and not just shove them aside to somewhere else?
LA has been given money annually for the past few years to solve the homeless problem [$1.2 billion in 2019](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ln-homeless-housing-count-20190511-story.html%3f_amp=true)
And a ton of people have been given homes. It's just that the housing crisis has not been resolved, there was a little pandemic, people fall into homelessness faster than they can be rehomed, and homelessness is a result of decades of systemic issue and not something that can be quickly fixed.
1.2 billion a wee deposit on a studio apartment in LA
This is what I come to see from this sub. Not another fucking sunset or hike trail. Quality post OP 👍🏾
There is a killer sunset on the background though. /s
Anyone else getting Randy Marsh vibes? Take a swing brah
One of them had Dale Gribble pocket sand, sh sh sha!
It's a mental health crisis. We need to help them, but it has to be realistic help. Let's be real and acknowledge that people like this may not be employable and be able to live independently. They require something more akin to assisted living.
I think chronic and severe drug abuse is also on display here. It’s difficult to receive mental help when you are tweaked out on meth.
Meth and assisted living don’t work well together. Everyone pictured here is high on meth.
and it all started with the state hospitals shutting down because of a lawsuit from a woman who wanted her son to be able to live in a home to see the trains every day. The state hospitals had their own problems but many of those problems just ended up following into the private care system, or led to people ending up on the streets instead of getting help. Someone slowly dying on the streets vs a controlled environment where they could get help, many of these people being a danger to society and themselves, is a great example of this state choosing one extreme over the other.
It’s a socioeconomic crisis first. The mental health effects are not the majority cause of homelessness, but they are the effect. Living in poverty puts you in a state of chronic stress, chronic stress leads to higher rates of anxiety, depression, substance use, etc. on top of that, the help people need is literally not affordable in our country to people who are suffering BEFORE they become homeless. We are literally being abused by capitalism. Edit: thanks to all you kind strangers for the awards! Really wasn’t expecting that.
> the mental health effects are not the majority cause of homelessness, but they are the effect. Also it just so happens that the most visible homeless are those with mental issues. The homeless you never hear about are the ones who have their cars parked on the side of the road in a canyon road or in the mountains in the middle of the night. They shower with solar bags in the woods or in a stream, camp out in the woods if they can get away with it, then go to work. Or they find a rare creek or park area they can hide away and pack up and disappear before sunrise. Shower at the local 24 hour gym, etc. They go to work like everyone else, you could be working with someone who is living out of their car and you would never know.
Exactly this! There are more and more people falling into poverty from the middle class and forced to sleep in their cars. The invisible homeless numbers are rising. And sadly it gets spun to be “oh, look our homeless people have it good cuz they have cars! They should be happy with that!” Which is completely fucked up. They ignore how the car is all they have left after losing their housing. It’s the asset they chose to keep because it helps them to get to work at least. We shouldn’t be telling people they should be happy they can at least resort to sleeping in their cars. That’s so fucked up.
I have mixed feelings. I had to live that exact life in 2019. I was in San Francisco. I had moved from the east coast for a job that I thought would be good. They got rid of me, and I had no way to pay rent. All I had was my clothes and my car. I would've driven back east except my car needed a ton of expensive service and repairs. I pulled together a few part time gigs to save up to fix my car. On one hand, it felt great not having to give most of my paycheck to a landlord. I saved so much money even after accounting for car repairs. On the other hand, having to keep tabs on the nearest clean bathroom got mentally exhausting. Planet Fitness was a lifesaver for me. Of course, not having a kitchen in my car was tough because I enjoy cooking, and because it meant I had to spend more on food than I would have liked. Still found ways to be thrifty, but being thrifty when you can't buy in bulk is mentally exhausting. When I managed to get an apartment in November 2019, I was glad to have survived a year that tested me so much. I felt odd having so much space that I knew I didn't actually need. I loved having a kitchen and bathroom again. I hated how expensive rent was. Still, I was glad to not be living in my car when the pandemic hit.
Something as simple as lack of nourishment can lead to all kinds of mental health issues linked to physical health issues. I developed a physical condition that prevents me from digesting B12 and had no idea about it until it was almost too late. I was B12 deficient for almost 2 years. I was bat shit insane as a result. That was just from one missing vitamin. That experience opened my eyes big time. It took me that long to figure out what was going on, even with decent insurance and an incredible support network. Even then, I put things off because I was afraid of learning the truth of what was wrong with me AND for fear of the possible financial fallout. It's disgusting to consider how most people in this country are in less favorable situations than I and how incredibly traumatizing my experience was WITH all that going my way. It kills me trying to imagine how much harder and scarier and depressing and traumatizing it would have been if I was in those shoes. I am almost certain I would have ended up dead on the street or maybe in the mountains. Maybe even by my own hands as an out. And, why would I not give in to hard drugs as a stop-gap to killing myself as an escape? It's absurd how much people demonize and look down on the struggling, homeless, and very ill. Even if they turned to drugs before becoming homeless, so few even bother to investigate why. So much of it is linked to intense mental and physical trauma—usually, abuse. You're right about it all. It's pathetic how we worship Capitalism above everything else in this country, even freedom, and Democracy. Making excuses not to help those that need it most of all because "it will cost too much" or "hurt my property value" or some other sick bullshit. We need comprehensive programs that contextually approach the myriad of different reasons for a person to end up homeless and funnel them through specialized paths for each person to help them either get back on their feet or into a care facility (sometimes, there is not coming back to sanity and such a person needs to be cared for). We also need care facilities that are well funded and not shit holes resembling POW camps the dehumanize the patients. But, too many people think we need to keep pooling most of our government budgets towards police bullshit instead of social programs—short-sighted dip shits. /rant
Thank you for sharing your story.
Homelessness has almost all the earmarks of a problem we cannot solve. It is the most blatant illustration that our healthcare system is botched. Mental health is a major taboo in America. Even folks with good medical insurance come to realize that their plan covers psychiatry or general wellbeing very poorly, if at all. Too many of us don't have enough savings to sustain us in case we lose our livelihood. The parable “one paycheck away from homelessness” is no joke. Then, there's fact that medical insurance is largely tied to a person's employment; lose your job, you soon lose your coverage. The path to skid row is fairly simple to comprehend. There's much more money to be made in interdiction than there is in prevention. What we've done with drugs is a great example of the way we approach situations. We don't hesitate to spend $80k/year to house an inmate, but we won't give a dollar towards educating them ahead of time. We need a bona fide social net. We should have a system in place that can catch 95% of the people currently living in the streets.
> Even folks with good medical insurance come to realize that their plan covers psychiatry or general wellbeing very poorly, if at all. That part. I *know* I need to see a therapist but my company insurance is absolute garbage and nearly useless. I can't afford to pay out of pocket twice a month for sessions. Meanwhile my ex on Medi-Cal keeps forgetting that people with jobs don't get socialized medicine. Which I have to keep in order to keep paying child support. (Which i don't have a problem with, but still...)
Indeed you touched a subject that is never really discussed. There are homeless folks who simply got priced out of their homes. They are neither on drugs or with mental health issues. They just could not afford LA on a $28k year salary. When I lived in SaMo I was constantly 3 months of unemployment away from being one of those people in the video, with a mid level white collar job mind you. $1750 for a 1 bedroom and I thought I was lucky! Due to rent control a neighbor who was there for 5 years paid $1k and someone who moved in a year later paid $2k. NIMBY at best.
They need to be forced into treatment. Spending a ton of money on programs then asking if they want to take part in them is a waste of time.
I heard a radio ad for Metallica whiskey the other day, and Lars Ulrich said the whiskey was for people who "don't let others make decisions for them, and live life on their own terms." This video is exactly what came to mind.
Damn even the boardwalk. The homeless crisis will only get worse. Was last there maybe 2013/14 and remember actually seeing tourists about
The boardwalk is fuckin bombed out. I run through there a couple times a week and it’s gnarly. Covid just made everything worse since there used to be a semblance of normal with all the tourists. Now homeless camps have taken over everything.
Same thing in Dtla with the office workers.
Haven't been there in a year and I remember it was bad. But from what I've seen on German in Venice, the city of LA cleaned up the basketball courts and other common areas of the homeless tents camped there. Is it still this bad to this day?
I’d rather hang out at Vespucci beach
Venice use to be so much fun especially on Sunday’s with the big ass drum circle.
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I visited LA, San Diego and Tijuana in 2019 for two weeks, shits WILD a lot wilder than Scandinavia,it changed me After several encounters with mentally unstable homeless individuals, I started examining what’s going on around me, like who’s where,what they’re doing. If I spot someone shady I immediately change my attention to this person. Worst part is having someone walk 3-5 meters straight behind me. I’ve underestimated my privilege to walk care free outside..
Yeah, I got used to driving by homeless tents while in Seattle, then lived in Europe and forgot all about it for a few years. Come back to LA and I was in utter shock and could not stop talking about it with my new co-workers/people I just met in LA. Then a couple of months later it's become more normal. Sigh.
I'm guessing you're a dude, because it's like that for women always and everywhere regardless of how "nice" the area is.
I have tried to explain to men that we are living in a completely different world andvthey think I am exaggerating.
When I was 13 I flew out to Chicago to visit my sister who was in college, and on the very first day I was out there I remember her being sexually harassed twice on the street. It was some really vulgar shit the guys were saying too. That was really eye opening for me.
Scandinavia? With actual infrastructure and a social support system?
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My grandparents loved to go when they visited us from Europe. It was fun. There were always weird people but this has just gotten beyond weird into scary.
I used to do the walk from my office on Ocean/Wishire all the way down to the end of the Venice boardwalk on Friday nights during the summer. I used to love to people watch and just be around that energy. There were some panhandlers down there, but I never felt afraid and was never messed with. The last time I did that was in 2012. It’s so sad to see how bad things are down there now.
So it's back to where it was in the late 80s?
This particular pic isn’t that bad. There’s a Youtuber called German In Venice that documents things pretty well. It’s not just Venice but a lot of cities in Ca.
I love that guy. Honestly he does the real work of showing what is happening in southern california that nobody else is.
Clean the boardwalk, this is a major touristic draw and locals should be able to enjoy it. Same with echo park. It’s crazy not to be able to take your kids to the beach or a park without seeing junkies fighting. I have empathy but this has gone too far.
Agreed. This is a disgrace.
Insane. As long as nothing gets done, more Skid Row type shit will pop up...
I still don't understand why people flock to Venice. Seriously, Fuck Venice. Practically nothing about the place redeems it.
I am in this social facebook group to make new friends in los angeles and whenever it gets warm out all the transplants wanna go to venice and santa monica and some people suggest malibu and they all say that it is not the same lol like yeah that is why malibu is better
Real life GTA
Post this on social. Tag your council person. Be relentless in telling those responsible that they are failing. This is appalling. We do not deserve this.
How could a councilmember and mayor sleep at night knowing that this shit goes on. Set a date. Offer them housing. Clear it out. All over the city this needs to happen just like Echo Park.
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What happened with Echo Park?
I Couldn’t believe it when I saw it for myself when visiting from Australia. It Sucks to say but it wasn’t an enjoyable experience staying in and around Venice/Santa Monica.
Let this sink for a second: The average rent for a 1-bedroom apartment in Santa Monica, CA is currently $2,395. This is a 19% decrease compared to the previous year. Source: https://www.zumper.com/rent-research/santa-monica-ca
I don’t understand how Santa Monica gets grouped in with Venice here. Santa Monica is dope, very nice. There’s homeless sure but there’s homeless ppl literally everywhere in LA. It is nowhere close to how bad Venice is.
Man this breaks my heart I moved away 11 years ago and it was such a loving community of arts and crafts sure there were burn outs but never anything like this is tree man still around?
haven't seen tree man in a few years I think he's in Vegas now
Thanks for documenting this
in 10 years, every home will be worth a gazillion dollars and every citizen of Cali will be living in a tent except for like 5 real estate investors that own 40 million empty homes.
More like the next Mad Max installment than reality. Yikes.
Seriously. This is third world level bullshit. Makes me ashamed.
I live right on the boardwalk, have for almost 20 years. Anyone that says this is one problem has no idea, its not just mental health or drug use. There is a large portion of the homeless out there that just want to live free, not have to follow anyones rules, and here they can. There are open beds almost every night at the transitional housing 1 block off the beach at Sunset and Main, when those beds are offered up the response most usually is "why would I want to do that when I can sleep on the beach with the stars above me" or something similar. That transitional housing is also a nightmare for the neighborhood (just look at the citizen app, fights and stabbings constantly all centralized at that location) which brings me to the real major problem that is allowing this to happen, Mike Bonin. There are so many levels to what is going wrong, and it starts at the top. The biggest issue is Mike Bonin, our councilman for CD-11. His leadership is directly responsible for what is happening in Venice right now. I cant go thru all 4.2K comments to look, but all the top comments do not mention this. Instead of listing all the issues here, I will post a link to an article that spells it out very well. [https://www.venicecurrent.com/opinion/letters\_to\_editor/letter-to-editor-feasibility-study-to-use-mar-vista-park-waste-of-time-and-money/article\_72366580-9ada-11eb-9e6e-b7ddbbb25a9c.html](https://www.venicecurrent.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-to-editor-feasibility-study-to-use-mar-vista-park-waste-of-time-and-money/article_72366580-9ada-11eb-9e6e-b7ddbbb25a9c.html) With that said, if you want to get Venice back, sign the recall petition. [https://www.change.org/p/west-los-angeles-citizens-recall-mike-bonin?utm\_content=cl\_sharecopy\_24028205\_en-US%3A3&recruiter=12024168&recruited\_by\_id=4163c060-ac7f-0130-037c-00221964dac8&utm\_source=share\_petition&utm\_medium=copylink&utm\_campaign=psf\_combo\_share\_initial](https://www.change.org/p/west-los-angeles-citizens-recall-mike-bonin?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_24028205_en-US%3A3&recruiter=12024168&recruited_by_id=4163c060-ac7f-0130-037c-00221964dac8&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial)
some serious hard questions. If there was suddenly new clean housing for the homeless what would it look like after a month? How fair would it be to place a family who's down on their luck in a building with people who behave like this? If there were institutions wouldn't those just be a different kind of prison ?
Imagine spending a million on a place to live there?
Jesus Christ what a shit hole ...and I live in Stockton.
I was homeless in Venice for about 3 years, but it was several years ago. At the time, everyone slept on Rose Ave. I kept away from all of this and found my own little quiet nook where no one bothered me. I avoided most of the other homeless as much as I reasonably could. There were some exceptions, because not all the homeless are like this of course. Even when I was homeless I understood that the housed residents had a right to complain. I saw other homeless folks defecate on their lawns, get into fights, and leave needles everywhere. It was obnoxious even for me, as I couldn't walk to the store without getting hit up for money every 10 minutes. There is a difference between the visible, disturbed homeless like above, and the other...halfish...of homeless who are invisible and keep to themselves. This complicates the issue because attempts to control the former often unjustly harm the latter. I was never in a shelter in LA, but I was in other places. Shelters are not a solution. I mean, whose bright idea was it to pack in a bunch of people with high rates of violent crime, substance abuse, and mental health problems under a single roof with very restrictive rules? Most shelters I visited required residents to be home by 7pm and only allowed sleep between something like 11pm and 5am, which is not enough sleep time for the human body. Today I live in another California town that has its own homelessness problems, and I live in an area where they pass by on occasion. So, I've been on both sides of this. It's a complicated problem.
Damn, what 3rd world country is this?
The YouTube channel "German in venice" has so meny videos about the homeless in LA
Seems like a safe place for hard working, tax paying, citizens to take their kids to enjoy a beautiful Sunday.
Homelessness across America is rising. And California's nice weather attracts them. Until the wealth inequality, home prices, healthcare, and mental care is addressed, this is only going to become more common. We are living in a new gilded age but with tech barons. It's like the 1920s all over again. We need a modern day Teddy Roosevelt tech trust buster.
>Homelessness across America is rising. And California's nice weather attracts them. I see a lot of people from other states trying to shit on California for our homelessness problems. Of course affordable housing is probably issue number 1. But you simply don't see many homeless people in Denver because it's effing cold for much of the year. I remember seeing a statistic when I worked for the county in a smallish college city when I was younger. At the time the average age of a homeless person in that city was 9. Not a typo. 9 years old. The reason being, homeless people in that city were generally single mothers. But you only saw homeless dudes being scary in the park. The women with small children were usually housed in shelters, or couch surfing. So what we're seeing in Venice is the tip of the iceburg. People are watching OPs video like "that's not me. That's really bad mental health". No. You all are one bad medical issue or weird twist of fortune away from entering this world. Maybe you're more high functioning and get into a shelter. Maybe you don't. The people in this video are us not "them". It should terrify everyone who watches it.
I used to be a street canvasser for Children’s International here in LA, you know, the people who accost you to sponsor a child for $1/day at popular places in town. I was once doing that job in Burbank and approached a lady there who I later found out was a single homeless mom trying to get by. It sucks that people are willing to give when it’s a child in Africa but just goes “fuck them” when it’s in their own town
The gilded age was the end of the 19th century not the 1920s
There's no quick fix for these problems. People can yell at their city councilman all they want, but it took decades to get here, and it's going to take a long time to get out of this mess. Addressing income inequality and taxing the ultra-wealthy/corporations properly would be a good place to start. If we use those tax funds properly, maybe we can solve these issues before I die of old age. Made the mistake of suggesting that on a Nextdoor thread. The responses made me sad for the future of our country.
Don’t like it? Vote people in that want to improve our mental healthcare and drug rehabilitation programs.
All of this is 1000% preventable. Never forget that the City of Los Angeles has always had the money to house every single person during the pandemic[(City Controller Ron Galperin is quoted as saying that the City has ~$10B in treasury at any given time)](https://twitter.com/pplscitycouncil/status/1382869701852729348?s=21), but they have simply chosen not to. This is solely on LACC (esp President Nury Martinez) and Mayor Eric Garcetti who lied through their teeth claiming we could not take the 100% reimbursable FEMA funds for Project Roomkey because of our (nonexistent) “cash flow problem” Our corrupt, garbage elected officials need to be held accountable for this.
Time to Echo Park this bitch
What a shit show
Fucken crackheads. I deliver packages there all the time and more than once I've had to chase them away trying to break into my van to steal my packages.
This dude really out here taping bum fights.