Members of the Arcadia City Council Tuesday approved a lease that clears the way for USC Healthcare to take control of Methodist Hospital next month, which was.
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On a recent visit, Peck Park was quiet and the water serene and undisturbed as runners and families made their way along the paved path around the lake. Off the road, tents stood under trees where unhoused people lived quietly by the water. The park’s stillness, though, belied the heated debate that broke out last month when the Arcadia City Council discussed plans to build tiny shelters for the homeless population in the city on a small parcel of land there.
The only thing that activists for and against the shelters agreed on was that the one-room dwellings were just a temporary solution that wouldn’t address the larger issues of unaffordable housing. And because the Arcadia City Council decided to table the issue to study it further, it’s unlikely that the project will ever be completed because the grant money that would have funded it has been awarded to other cities instead. As Arcadia’s homeless resource hub closes next month, the status quo will remain, depri
The battle over housing the homeless in Los Angeles County has moved into the suburbs.
In Arcadia, Asian American residents are protesting against the potential development of “tiny homes” 8-by-8-foot units available to those without shelter, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles City Councilwoman April Verlato of Arcadia has supported a plan to build 15 of the units, which would give occupants access to food, shelter, laundry and job placement services. The Arcadia City Council voted to study the plan in February.
“April Verlato needs to understand that tiny homes are not the answer for Arcadia,” Fenglan “Juli” Liu, a protest organizer who lives in neighboring Temple City, told the Los Angeles Times. “They’re prisons that no homeless person wants to stay in. I know. I’ve asked them.”