Thursday, November 19, 1998
Westwood, Bay Area police, merchants target homeless
POVERTY: Efforts to curb loitering, drug sales look to those
living on streets
By Caridad Lezcano
Daily Bruin Contributor
Three decades ago, a young soldier served his country in the
Vietnam war. Today, the same soldier walks the streets of Westwood
and calls the area surrounding the Los Angeles National Cemetery
home
"Just walking around, you get dirty looks from the merchants –
not to mention police," said Bill Jacobs, a homeless Vietnam
veteran.
Homeless people in the Bay Area, however, are getting more than
dirty looks. They are aggressively being targeted by police. It is
all part of a new crackdown campaign that police officials believe
will reduce drug dealing and loitering.
While the homeless population in Westwood does not necessarily
live under the same circumstances, students at UCLA have mixed
feelings on the homeless problem.
"The main fault of this San Francisco approach is the fact that
we, as a society, want to eliminate a complex problem with the
minimum amount of effort," said Dennis Smith, third-year biology
student.
While authorities in Northern California have decided to become
tougher on the homeless, those in the Los Angeles area still
grapple with developing a clear policy on the issue.
"The homeless situation in Westwood is hard to address because
so many homeless people call it home," said Nancy Greenstein
director of Community Service at the UCLA Police Department.
For community leaders, however, the homeless situation is not as
severe.
"Westwood Village wants to present an environment that is
attractive, safe and clean to further the businesses," said Patty
Evanf, who works for the executive director of the Westwood Village
Community Alliance (WVCA).
The Westwood Village Community Alliance is a group of commercial
owners that work together in order to keep the Village clean and
safe by funding community police.
Although the Alliance does not have power to enforce laws, it
has on many occasions requested assistance to deal to with what
they call "aggressive panhandling" and loitering – which often is
caused by homeless people.
"There have been times when I finally got my hands on food, sat
down to eat it, only to be told to leave immediately," Jacobs said
of his experience in the village.
Mareta Ter-Galstangan, a third-year business economics student,
said that she agrees with the policy of limiting the number of
homeless people in the area.
"By having homeless people at UCLA, it brings the campus down
because it is a prestigious and affluent community," she said. "I
support 100 percent the (efforts) to keep the community safe."
In the Bay Area, however, some students criticize San
Francisco’s policies toward transient people.
"One problem with the Westwood Village Alliance and the San
Francisco situation is that you’re just pushing the homeless to
another area, and you’re not solving the problem," said Vanessa
Chau, a third-year psychology student at UCLA.
During a recent crackdown on crime in Northern California, the
homeless population in the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco
and Berkeley’s Telegraph Avenue were targeted. Due to a series of
complaints, the San Francisco police cracked down on homeless
people to cut down on drug dealing and loitering.
Some store owners have even photographed homeless people and
hung their pictures in liquor stores, warning merchants not to sell
to them.
Chau, however, supports the crackdown, even though she questions
if it will be effective in the long run.
"It’s a scary area to walk alone in by myself," she said. "It’s
a lot of homeless people hanging around in the park."
Other students disagree with the posting of pictures of homeless
people in liquor stores.
"Their constitutional rights are being violated," said Miguel
Naranjo, a third-year theater student.
"What ever happened to men are created equal? They don’t have
every citizen’s picture up on the liquor store," he said.DAVID
HILL
Jeffrey Austin Jenkas plays guitar as he sits curbside on
Broxton.
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