After my recent petition update titled We ARE Winning!, I was shocked Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti reneged on his offer to lease a vacant lots to Elvis Summers. Published on April 20th, 2016, Elvis Summers made a video he described as "The Biggest Announcement I have ever made."

Remember, Tiny Homes were paid for via citizen investment (not taxpayer money) and it was illegal for the city to confiscate them in the first place.

Now, according to an LA Times piece, Elvis Summers "understood that Mayor Garcetti was considering offering a surplus city lot as a site for the houses." But the mayor's spokeswoman, Connie Llanos, said the mayor "does not support the village concept" and added, "we're developing a process on how we could work with nonprofits and we'd share those with" Summers.

What?!

In this February 26th, 2016 Mashable article by Olivia Niland and Megan Specia titled Los Angeles declares war on tiny houses donated to the homeless, Elena Stern, Bureau of Sanitation spokeswoman stated "... there's no running water, the electrical was not done by somebody licensed" [in these Tiny Homes].

The electrical is solar powered (and anyone can install these lights). And of course there in no running water, because Elvis Summers is providing temporary, mobile shelter to people who otherwise have to sleep outside exposed to the elements, criminals, rabid animals, and the LAPD who are continuing to harass, cite, and/or arrest them.

According to Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) and the USA-Canada Alliance of Inhabitants (USACAI) Civil Rights Campaign, these are the results from survey respondents [homeless people] of their National Street Outreach efforts:

• 81 percent reported being harassed, cited, or arrested for sleeping
• 76 percent reported being harassed, cited, or arrested for sitting or lying on the sidewalk
• 74 percent reported being harassed, cited, or arrested for loitering or hanging out
• Only 26 of the respondents said they knew of a safe place to sleep at night

Another WRAP 3-page Right to Exist document drives home the point:

"Most of the relevant laws, nationwide, are summary offenses (“infractions” in California; “violations” in some other states), which means that they can’t directly result in any jail or prison time. However, 57 percent of respondents reported bench warrants issued for their arrest as a result of these citations: that is, if they couldn’t afford to pay the fines that these tickets carried, or if they were unable to make court dates, then they became subject to arrest."

How much tighter can the poorest among us be squeezed?

Employers and landlords routinely conduct background checks, so how are homeless people (arrested for having the same biological needs as people with homes) supposed to reintegrate into mainstream society?

It is backwards for Mayor Garcetti to "not support the village concept" when Elvis Summers MYTHPLA.org Recent Projects include a large mobile shower unit and laundry facility.

Furthermore, when Elvis Summers first began building Tiny Homes, Los Angeles had (and still does) tens of thousands of vacant lots. 

Elected officials (that we pay the salaries of) are supposed to represent the best interests of all citizens – not just developers and those with homes or businesses.

Therefore, we demand a moratorium on development in Los Angeles county until affordable quality housing (regulated by enforceable long-term rent control measures) are provided for the city's growing homeless population.

And until every homeless person is accommodated by permanent housing, we demand the city provide Elvis Summers and his team the use of vacant city lots (including VA property) to support his plans for Tiny Home villages.

Since this humanitarian effort will take more than one night to accomplish, we also demand a moratorium on all vagrancy laws which criminalize the homeless. In this AllGov.com post titled California Reanimates Vagrancy Laws to Criminalize Homelessness:

"Researchers studied 58 California cities and found more than 500 anti-homeless laws between them." And they all fall under four basic human needs/activities that sustain life: 

1. standing, sitting, and resting in public places 
2. sleeping, camping, and lodging in public places, including in vehicles
3. begging and panhandling
4. food sharing

We also demand that any homeless people with bench warrants issued for their arrest as a result of these citations have them administratively removed immediately.

We, as global citizens (all members of the human race), will no longer sit back and watch taxpayer money be misappropriated and see the most vulnerable among us be abused and exploited at the hands of government and/or law enforcement.

Notably, public figure officer Deon Joseph has ignored my publicly posted open letter.

As stated in this CityWatch article by James Preston Allen:

"Lawyers like Carol Sobel warned that the new laws, which make it easier to dismantle camps and dispose of homeless people’s property, are unconstitutional ... Sobel said the settlement [Bell v. City of Boise] is one of a half-dozen agreements the city has reached" [costing taxpayers millions of dollars in legal fees].

And Leslie Evans of the Southwest LAPD Community Police Advisory Board pointed out: "The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is asking for $120 billion, 65 times more than the supposedly unreachable budget to tackle homeless housing ... maybe the MTA project should be scaled back a little — one or two 64ths? — to help solve a genuine humanitarian crisis."

A Business Wire post Top Los Angeles Anti-Poverty Leaders Back November Ballot Measure Against Overdevelopment stated The Neighborhood Integrity Initiative "will halt huge developments not permitted by existing zoning, end City Hall's practice of destroying affordable housing to make way for luxury projects, and force elected leaders to follow the planning laws."

Columnist Bill Boyarsky of the LA Observed noted:

"Development in Los Angeles is actually controlled by a web of incomprehensible zoning laws that are regularly avoided by campaign-contributing real estate magnates and their city hall supporters. If developers want to put up a tall building, they go to the council member representing the area. Council members control zoning laws and developments in their districts. Their colleagues, no matter what a neighborhood plan says, routinely grant approval. Residents are left in the dark unless they happen to follow their neighborhood association website."

After the ballot measure surfaced, Mayor Garcetti and some of his council members found a way to delay new city plans regulating development until – get this – until 2026!

And I agree with Boyarsky's statement "... we should have this debate next year, when the initiative is on the ballot, rather than letting the issue disappear in the city hall bureaucracy" except for one thing:

The time is now. We have enough evidence that the Tiny Homes movement works, is completely doable and saves money (and most importantly, LIVES). Our voices need to be heard and we need to act now.

I'll be in touch,

Rose

Special request: Please, could someone kindly let Las Familias del Pueblo founder Rev. Alice Callaghan (who was born in Canada) know about this petition? I cannot seem to find any contact information specifically for her. Thank you in advance.

Recommended Reading and Websites:

A Homeless Bill of Rights (Revolution) by Sara K. Rankin

Please visit: MYTHPLA.org to see all the wonderful ways Elvis Summers and his team are helping homeless people everywhere.

Our latest fundraiser: Tiny Houses for the Homeless Fundraiser​

Breaking News Reporter a News/Media Website run by Marisol Medina, Tiny Homes Architect and Starting Human Volunteer