[dropcap size=big]T[/dropcap]hey’re being called “anti-homeless planters,” and I bet you’ve seen them. These are planters normally intended for a patio or home garden, but have become the latest tool used to displace the homeless in neighborhoods across Los Angeles.
They are all over Hollywood. On Cahuenga, planters line the perimeter of Quixote Trucks like a moat to a castle. The planters are popping up on Lillian Way in East Hollywood between Santa Monica and Melrose. There, the rental houses, photo studios, production companies, and “luxury” apartments have sought to prevent encampments from settling the sidewalks.
Communities in Los Angeles have questioned the legitimacy of these planters for years but not everybody sees them as an anti-homeless tool. Now, a chain of emails provides some insight as to how they are being used as just that by Hollywood studios and other property owners in the area.
Recently publicized emails between property owners and the LAPD, illustrate the lengths landlords are willing to go to displace the homeless, and the ways in which law enforcement is complicit.