Marina Solano’s grocery retailer in South Los Angeles enjoys regular enterprise promoting freshly made tortillas and a wide range of produce like oranges, avocados and tomatoes to the closely Latino neighborhood.
However the continued presence of homeless encampments on the streets surrounding El Mexicano Market has pressured Solano to board up her storefront and rent additional safety to guard her enterprise, her staff and her clients.
“We’re extraordinarily affected by the homeless. Is nobody going to assist us?” she mentioned. “It appears they’ve extra rights than we do.”
Juan Morales, a safety guard on the market, witnessed the issue develop during the last three years he has labored for Solano.
“The homeless have threatened to burn the market,” Morales mentioned. “And so they say we will’t do something about it. The supervisor has struggled rather a lot together with her enterprise as a result of she must pay us to guard this place in a single day.”
Marina Solano’s grocery retailer, El Mexicano Market, sits alongside the 6600 block of Avalon Boulevard within the neighborhood of Florence.
(Gary Coronado / For The Instances)
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass lately lifted the town’s state of emergency on homelessness, noting that the variety of unhoused folks decreased considerably within the final two years. However for South L.A. retailers and residents, particularly in the neighborhood of Florence, the town’s efforts have executed little to curb the cussed homelessness drawback on their streets.
The homelessness disaster is nothing new to Los Angeles, and efforts over time to handle it have had combined outcomes. Whereas metropolis officers have a good time successes in clearing homeless encampments in different components of Los Angeles, resident and retailers in Florence say extra must be executed of their neighborhood.
Solano is considered one of a number of enterprise homeowners in Florence who complain that they’ve been impacted by the “endless” presence of homeless encampments. The market and two of Solano’s warehouses are situated between Gage and Florence avenues, a couple of half-mile radius from encampments the place a number of unhoused folks dwell of their tents, vehicles or RVs.
Dana Kanu, 63, who’s homeless, proven together with her canine Zara at her encampment alongside the 7000 block of Avalon Boulevard. This encampment stretches from Gage Avenue to Florence Avenue.
(Gary Coronado / For The Instances)
The streets are unwalkable and filled with trash, and the odor is “insufferable,” residents say.
“I do know this doesn’t simply have an effect on me. [Homelessness] is unfold all through South L.A., in the event you go to downtown L.A. they’re hidden in between companies or by the L.A. River. However sadly right here, they’re close to houses,” Solano mentioned.
A center college, public park and financial institution are all inside strolling distance of the encampment. However some residents say they don’t really feel protected strolling to such locations, with sidewalk tents encroaching on bus stops, bike lanes and roadways.
“I’ve lived right here for about eight years and it appears they solely like [Avalon Boulevard],” a girl, who declined to establish herself, mentioned whereas she waited for the bus together with her two younger youngsters. “If you happen to discover, the issue is simply between Gage and Florence.”
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual rely by the Los Angeles Homeless Companies Authority estimated that about 41,290 folks had been thought-about homeless, with about 30% residing in shelters. In 2025, the variety of folks residing on the streets of Los Angeles dropped to 26,972.
Bass mentioned that the emergency declaration “allowed the town the authority to take daring and swift motion to upend the failed established order … leading to Los Angeles’ first-ever two consecutive years of discount in homelessness, together with a 17% drop in road homelessness.”
Metropolis officers say they’ve additionally launched focused efforts to handle the homelessness drawback in South Los Angeles.
In Might, Councilmember Curren Value, whose district contains a lot of South Los Angeles, teamed up with Bass to launch an Inside Protected operation on Avalon Boulevard that housed 32 folks, and of these, seven have returned to the streets, per metropolis figures.
“A key part of Inside Protected is the constant monitoring of former operation websites to carry much more Angelenos inside if encampments return and to work with companions to attach folks to assets that may appropriately meet particular person wants,” Bass mentioned in a press release this week.
This program, nonetheless, requires homeless folks to voluntarily settle for companies and let go of most of their private belongings. Since its 2022 inception, Inside Protected has moved greater than 5,000 folks into interim housing, in keeping with a Instances report.
In a press release to NBCLA, Value mentioned that “not everybody is able to settle for companies.”
Elihue “Shaba” Pitts Sr., 53, who’s homeless, considers himself the neighborhood organizer alongside the 7000 block of Avalon Boulevard.
(Gary Coronado / For The Instances)
Homeless residents like Elihue “Shaba” Pitts Sr. discover it laborious to “simply go away,” he mentioned.
Pitts lives on Avalon Boulevard, the place he maintains a small backyard to memorialize his son Omari Pitts, who was killed in a violent crash from a high-speed police chase in Fontana. Throughout the metropolis’s Cleansing and Fast Engagement, or CARE operations, Pitts’ belongings, together with his potted vegetation, had been eliminated.
“I begin from scratch,” the 53-year-old mentioned. “I’ve to. That is all I acquired.”
The final CARE operation on the Avalon hall passed off on Halloween Day, in keeping with Value’s workplace.
“We attempt to have a peaceable relationship with the homeless, like giving them meals throughout Thanksgiving and holidays,” Solano mentioned. “However typically they need to come and do no matter they need. We simply can’t enable that.”
John Maceri, chief government of The Folks Concern, an L.A.-based nonprofit social service company targeted on ending homelessness, mentioned unhoused folks could initially decline assets however that “relentless outreach” is important.
“When somebody says ‘no’ immediately, it doesn’t imply ‘no’ perpetually,” Maceri mentioned. “It might take weeks, or months in some circumstances, to get somebody to conform to take the following step. Some of us have been let down by the system they usually selected a location that feels acquainted to them.”
He added that packages like Inside Protected and L.A. County’s Pathway Dwelling “are usually not simply shifting folks from one aspect of the road and cleansing up the world.”
“The entire concept is that persons are related to housing and ongoing companies, which is an enormous incentive for folks to take part,” Maceri mentioned. “It is a massive distinction [over] simply shifting encampments in order that the streets and sidewalk are clear.”
Metropolis crews have sanitized Gage Avenue and Avalon Boulevard in South Los Angeles greater than 20 instances simply this 12 months, in keeping with Value’s workplace. However residents say this isn’t sufficient.
Sanitation crews take away well being and security hazards and strong waste from the general public right-of-way, in keeping with the town’s sanitation and surroundings division.
Usually, when a clean-up operation is scheduled, unhoused persons are notified forward of time. As soon as notified, residents say, the homeless neighbors merely transfer briefly to close by residential streets.
A Florence resident who recognized herself solely as Cindy mentioned she has seen this drawback since she first purchased her home a 12 months in the past.
“It has been a nightmare,” she mentioned. “This has been tremendous nerve-racking. For a complete 12 months, my husband and I cleaned up all this trash. Certain, the town tries to scrub up the primary streets, however in terms of the residential ones, they don’t do something about it.”
Rueben Acosta, 45, who’s homeless, washes down the road in entrance of his motorhome.
(Gary Coronado / For The Instances)
In line with metropolis road indicators, residential streets are scheduled for cleansing on Mondays and Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. However for residents like Cindy, trash pickup just isn’t constant.
Each week, Cindy and her husband energy wash the sidewalk in entrance of their house and dump the trash they gather into their enterprise’ dumpster. However after some time, “I instructed my husband no extra, this isn’t our job,” she mentioned.
The Bureau of Road Companies didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark as of Friday.
“We’re sustaining coordination with service suppliers and metropolis departments to make sure follow-up cleanups and pursue long-term options that promote stability, security and dignity for everybody concerned,” mentioned Angelina Valencia-Dumarot, a spokesperson for Value’s workplace. “Further coordinated operations are deliberate for early December.”
Some enterprise homeowners have taken it upon themselves to scrub their aspect of the road, attempting to protect the look of what was as soon as a bustling hall.
“I’ve been assaulted at gunpoint, and the police mentioned we will’t do something as a result of they didn’t shoot me,” mentioned one enterprise proprietor, who declined to offer their title because of concern of retaliation. “We’re being uncared for. Our enterprise has gone down, not solely due to what’s occurring with immigration, however due to the homeless situation that has been happening for years. The very best I can do just isn’t become involved.”
