At 9:30 a.m. on March 21, Robert F. Kennedy Inspiration Park in LA Koreatown was the scene. Two LA city employees were surrounded by eight homeless people. It was hard to hear the conversation from a distance, but one of the homeless men, a black man, said, “Home.”
About thirty minutes later, the homeless man and the City employee shared a hug and patted each other on the shoulder. Soon after, the man exited the park, accompanied by other homeless men, carrying his heavy pack in both hands, as if he had made a decision.
Operation Inside Safe, a homeless relocation program, has begun. Eight LA city and county agencies were on the scene. The LA Bureau of Parking Management blocked the Wilshire Boulevard lanes next to the park, and two garbage trucks from the Los Angeles Sanitation Bureau were lined up.
If you think you can jump right into the cleanup, you’re wrong. “It took most of the morning hours to convince the homeless people,” said Jieun Kim, a Deputy Director of Korean Language Communications.
They started to convince homeless people at 7:30 a.m., but it was already past 10. The camps and trash were barely touched.
An Inside Safe representative in a safety helmet entered the scene and spent a long time talking to the homeless people again.
“Convincing a homeless person who already considers this place home is the hardest part of the job,” Kim explains, “but since Inside Safe encourages voluntary relocation, we cannot force them to move.” When asked about the possibility of their returning, Kim explained, “While the previous cleanup program was called ‘CARE+,’ which focused on cleaning by the Bureau of Sanitation, Inside Safe moves homeless people to temporary living facilities, such as converted hotels and motels, rather than just shelters.” It’s not just a cleaning operation, she explained. The program is for housing and rehabilitation that can have long-term effects.
At 10:30 AM, the LA Department of Transportation (LADOT) dash buses transporting homeless people arrived, and all the homeless people at the site successfully boarded the bus.
According to officials, 27 homeless people were relocated, including those who left earlier in the morning. It was not disclosed where the homeless people went.
Behind the buses, workers from the LA Sanitation Bureau busily broke down the camps and removed garbage. The furniture used to make a living weighs a lot. Soon, two nine-ton trucks were full.
“It’s a big day,” said Annetta Wells, Senior Director of Community Engagement, with breathlessness in her voice.
When asked about the secret to convincing homeless people, she said, “You have to calm them down first. It’s their community. You have to know what they’re worried about, what their fears are, and you have to reassure them that they’re safe.”
“They don’t trust the government. And it’s very difficult to convince them because they’ve been let down by the system,” she said. “So we keep going back, even before the cleanup, to talk to them, to instill hope and confidence. We don’t stop there. We continue to check in with them after they move out to show them that we care about them because they feel like they’ve been abandoned by everyone.”
Meanwhile, the Inside Safe program, created by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, who declared a homelessness emergency on her first day in office, has held more than 40 sessions to date, according to the L.A. Mayor’s Office.
This is the third time the program has been held in LA Koreatown. Previously, the program was held in September and October of 2023 at Chateau Park (District 10) and Virgil Middle School (District 13). An operation was also scheduled for the afternoon of March 21 at 8th and Catalina Streets, but was unexpectedly postponed.
According to the mayor’s office, the program selects areas for each district to conduct operations based on homelessness statistics and the number of related complaints, with one to two operations per week.
Robert F. Kennedy Inspirational Park is one of the areas that has received the most complaints for safety and sanitation reasons, as it is directly adjacent to a school.
Late in 2023, 110 residents and businesses around the park petitioned the neighborhood council.
“This is the second cleanup since last year,” said Michael Wilbrook, a resident of Gaylord Apartments, adding, “It’s more important that the homeless don’t come back.”
Sung Eun (24), a resident of an apartment near the park, said, “I’ve been kicked by homeless people when I walked in front of my house, and I’ve heard them yelling at me at night.” “It’s good that the cleaning of the homeless camp is creating a pleasant living environment, but I’m not sure if they will return,” she added.
BY SUAH JANG, KYEONGJUN KIM, JUNHAN PARK
[jang.suah@koreadaily.com, kim.kyeongjun1@koreadaily.com]
