During a summer of extreme heat in Southern California, housing advocates from AHF’s Housing Is A Human Right (HHR) division, National Coalition for the Homeless, and Skid Row Brigade, will host a press conference on Wednesday, August 19 to demand that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and City Hall immediately stop removing the tents of unhoused residents, leaving them without protection from extreme weather. Rough sleepers have gone up in Hollywood, Venice, and Skid Row areas of Los Angeles, according to a 2026 Rand report.

WHAT:

PRESS CONFERENCE: ‘Mayor Bass, City Hall: STOP Taking Away Tents!’
 

WHEN:

Wednesday, August 19, 11:00 a.m.
 

WHERE:

Housing Is A Human Right headquarters

6500 W Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028
 

NOTE:

The press conference will be in front of the mural “Who Is Housed When Money Talks?” by conceptual artist and muralist Barbara Kruger, on Housing Is A Human Right’s headquarters
 

WHO:

Susie Shannon, Policy Director for Housing Is A Human Right

Mary Ann Cellini, Housing & Homeless Advocate, National Coalition for the Homeless

Steve Marino, Captain, Skid Row Brigade

Homeless advocates and mobilizers

Housing and homeless advocates believe taking tents away is both ineffective and cruel: many unhoused Angelenos whose tents and belongings have been swept away by city sanitation crews simply become ‘rough sleepers’ – living and sleeping outdoors with no protection against the heat and other elements. This phenomenon is well documented in a recent Rand report and statement released by Rand in May: “Homelessness Holds Steady Across Three L.A. Neighborhoods as Rough Sleeping Reaches a Four-Year High”.

“The policy of taking tents away from our unhoused community in the City of Los Angeles has left our homeless community exposed to extreme weather and heat exhaustion,” said Susie Shannon, Policy Director for Housing is a Human Right. “We are calling on the city to stop this inhumane practice and allow our unhoused community to protect themselves in any way they can from extreme temperatures.”

“Extreme heat is deadly, and we need to do everything we can to help vulnerable residents instead of putting them in more danger,” said Hugo Soto-Martinez, Los Angeles City Councilmember, District 13. “That means health care workers and outreach teams going out with water, helping people to get to cooling centers, and connecting then to lifesaving resources.”

Unhoused individuals whose tents and belonging have been swept often also become lost to inclusion in the city’s official homeless count, as the city counts tents, NOT people, so sweeps wreak havoc with an accurate count of the city’s homeless population.

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