After city officials clear homeless encampments, how do they prevent people from coming back?
In recent years, authorities and private entities have increasingly relied on fences, planters, giant rocks, and other forms of so-called “hostile architecture” to physically prevent unhoused people from being able to pitch a tent on a sidewalk.
Just last week, on November 13, a block-long fence was erected along 1st Street, just steps away from City Hall in DTLA, shortly after a group of unhoused people were cleared from the area during a city sanitation operation.
The fence blocks off a Metro bus shelter (one of only about a quarter that provides shade) and limits the amount of space people have to get on and off buses.
In other areas, it leaves only a few feet of space for people to navigate the sidewalk, forcing people to walk over uneven dirt and dense roots popping out of the ground.