Encampments and RVs have surrounded Jose Vidales’ South Los Angeles neighborhood streets, making maneuvering around difficult.

Vidales empathizes with those on the streets but is also concerned for his family’s safety because he has had two troubling encounters with them in recent years.

For instance, he said he was chased by an unhoused person with a stick near Downtown Los Angeles and tried to call police for help, but they arrived too late.

 “As of now, it seems L.A. has been lost to homelessness, and the law-abiding citizens have been forgotten,” Vidales said.

California faces a homelessness crisis with housing prices so high they have pushed some residents to the streets. Although unsheltered homelessness was down 10% in the city of Los Angeles and 5% in the county, more than 75,000 Los Angeles County residents were experiencing homelessness as of early 2024, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. 

 This summer, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order to ban all encampments within the state. While the order has been controversial, cities like Long Beach, Norwalk, and parts of Los Angeles have begun efforts to remove encampments.

This has led some activists to cry foul, out of concern for the unhoused residents living in the encampments.

But residents like Vidales said he hopes the order will allow people to get help.

“I have also seen that help is being offered by the city. Some reject the help and others have no choice but to accept it. Enough is enough and change needs to happen,” he said.

Richard Godoy said officials in South Gate, where he lives, need to do more to help with the crisis.

Godoy said that encampments along the Los Angeles riverbed have increased the past few years and officials haven’t responded to complaints: “I have reached out, but that got me nowhere. It was just a bunch of [crappy] answers that were provided to the residents.”