Homeless encampments in an industrial area of Chatsworth have become an increasing burden on the business community. The encampments became a problem in recent months, and with them, industrial businesses saw an increase in crime and sanitation issues. After the local government ignored individual complaints, Scott Caswell, a principal at Lee & Associates, circulated a petition to unite the ownership. The petition received more than 600 signatures and the local government has responded to the problem. We sat down with Caswell for an exclusive interview to talk about the homeless problem and the community responses.
GlobeSt.com: Tell me about the homeless encampment problem in the industrial area of Chatsworth.
Scott Caswell: The councilmen of Los Angeles tried to rid residential and school areas of homeless encampments, and their vote was to redirect that to industrial and commercial arenas. That opened a giant door for homeless parties with RVs to relocate up to the West San Fernando Valley. In a matter of months, we saw a huge surge of RVS camping on every single street, one after another. Along with that came a surge of crime, refuge in the street, tenant sprawl into surrounding properties. It was impacting the local ownership. Industrial arenas don't have the accommodations to facilitate RV dwellings. They weren't zoned for it for a reason, because they don't have public bathrooms or places for refuse collection. I feel sorry for the homeless because they were put into a space where there was no choice to sprawl out onto the streets and release sewage onto the streets. It is a double edge sword.
GlobeSt.com: Why did you create the petition as a response?
Caswell: The police and the councilmen weren't listening to complaints. I decided to create a position and let the owners of the industrial community sign the petition and express themselves. The comments area was private, and surprisingly, there was a common theme. People said that their employees were afraid to go outside and said that they wanted to move to other markets. Those statements were on going throughout the 600-plus people that signed the petition. We created the petition to stand as one with an individual voice.
GlobeSt.com: Did the petition recommend a solution?
Caswell: This really puts in the forefront that we need to help the homeless, and we need to do something more than kicking it down the street. We need to help the homeless by either helping them get off the streets or provide them with a location to survive temporarily. It isn't working allowing them to park on the street arbitrarily with out bathrooms, showers or receptacles. It is the basic essence of what you would need, and even a campsite offers those things. We need to really figure out how to solve this problem, not two years or three years away but right now. We need to be more agile and faster to handle this problem. The last time I heard, the homeless was 53,000. We need to do something better than we have been.
GlobeSt.com: How did the city leadership respond to the petition?
Caswell: We are starting to see some changes. Our district councilmen has been trying to do what he can and he has to pull emergency funds to band-aid a problem, which came on rapidly. We are concerned that there won't be funds in the future, and we are concerned about where they are going to go now. They are kicking it down the street to another location. It solves one part of it, but it doesn't solve the core issue.
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Kelsi Maree Borland
