A lawsuit claims a Los Angeles art school has had to close due to the city's lingering and growing homelessness crisis, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
The Media Arts Academy abruptly closed on January 15th, leaving dozens of high school students without an immediate solution to continue their education. according to to the Times. Los Angeles has one of the nation's worst homelessness crises, and the city is committing billions of dollars to solving it. (Related: Homeless people caught setting up tents as Democratic mayor touts efforts to address homelessness)
A lawsuit filed by the school's founder, Dana Hammond, said the school was closed because the homeless population had a negative impact on the school, which is housed in the Los Angeles Grand Hotel, which also has a temporary homeless shelter. be.
“The lives of students were at risk because of the residents of Inside Safe,” Hammond told the Times. “We're not the enemy of homeless shelters. We just can't put them in the same building as a high school.”
Homeless people living on the streets of Los Angeles, California, February 16, 2022. The annual census of homeless people will be conducted from February 22nd to 24th in Los Angeles, home to the largest homeless population in the United States. state. (Photo by Frederick J. Brown/AFP)
Hammond originally leased three floors of the Los Angeles Grand Hotel in 2022 so he could move the school there and provide better arts facilities for students, according to the Times. The school initially recruited up to 250 students, but that number began to dwindle rapidly to about 50, and Hammond was unable to pay the rent on her lease in January.
There have been multiple reports of homeless residents living at the Los Angeles Grand Hotel shelter having a negative impact on or directly interacting with schools and students. One man clashed with the school's bodyguard, another illegally entered the school through a back door and another had to be subdued by police after breaking into the school in early January, the Times reported. It is said that
One woman exposed herself to students and another was seen lying naked at the back of the school in the early hours of the morning and threatened to “shoot and stab” security guards if they approached, the Times reported. Outside the school, drug paraphernalia, empty liquor bottles and trash litter the sidewalk. School signs are covered in graffiti.
Professor Hammond said the issue was scaring students, according to the Times.
“Human feces on the sidewalk. The smell of urine wafts through the campus. “Inside Safe'' tenants riot. Break-in by “Inside Safe” tenant. Drug paraphernalia found on campus. 'Inside Safe' tenant found in trash can,'' read a comment left on a classroom whiteboard, according to the Times.
The “Inside Safe” program is Los Angeles Democratic Mayor Karen Bass' effort to move the city's large homeless population off the streets and into temporary housing such as the Los Angeles Grand Hotel. The buses have drawn criticism as homelessness remains widespread in the city, with many people given temporary housing unable to find permanent housing and in some cases returning to the streets. is recieving.
There are approximately 47,000 homeless people living in Los Angeles, and the city spends more than $1 billion annually to address the crisis. The Los Angeles Grand Hotel, which is being recruited into the Inside Safe program for temporary housing, will receive a $20 million lease extension from the city through July, according to the Times.
Bass' office did not respond to requests for comment.
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