[dropcap size=big]B[/dropcap]usiness Improvement Districts in California – including the dozens in Los Angeles — are harassing and abusing homeless people by pushing for cruel and sometimes illegal policies such as confiscating their possessions, making them leave public areas, and tearing down their makeshift shelters, according to a new UC Berkeley report.
The 52-page study by the Public Policy Clinic at Berkeley’s School of Law found that Business Improvement Districts, or BIDs, “are part of a concerted and growing effort to erase from cities any sign of vast inequality while at the same time perpetuating it.” The report concludes that BIDs have found a way to use tax money to fund the efforts.
“The interests of BIDs and the public interest fundamentally conflict,” said Paul Boden, the executive director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, in a statement released with the study’s findings."BIDs work to manufacture the appearance of prosperity in the city square but that farce comes at the expense of basic human rights for the unhoused poor.”
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