On July 1, 2021, I ralleyed board members of the Southern California Tour Guide Association to send a letter to local City Of Los Angeles City Council officials and sent copies to Mayor Garcetti, Governor Newsom, key state government officials, the Los Angeles Convention and Tourism Board, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and various tourist area business improvement districts to encourage city officials to become more proactive about curtailing the recent explosion of homeless tent encampments that seemed to overun key parts of our city since the beginning of the pandemic–including our own City Center where City Hall, Grand Park and the Los Angeles Police Department are located.

This letter signed by each of the SCTGA board members along with increased attention in the local TV news media helped prompt a major clean up of such densely populated encampments–most noticeably along the popular Venice Boardwalk and downtown Hollywood. In addition, the state department Caltran also made a noticeable effort in the removal of such encampments–particularly along the 101 Freeway between downtown Hollywood and downtown L.A.

The Southern Tour Guide Association has also offered the volunteer assistance of its own members to help participate in efforts to resolve to the City’s complex homelessness issue. More City and State funding than ever before has recently been allocated toward increasing available shelter facilities as well as the development of new strategies to assist those in the homeless population with mental illness and drug addition concerns. This problem will certainly will not disappear entirely, but with increased attention and resources both the City and State can hopefully keep it under confrol, as well as help more of those in dire need. Kudos to all City of Los Angeles and State of California officials who recently stepped up efforts to particularly reduce those encampants that were most visible to our visitor and tourist populations which threatened the comeback of our popular local tourism industry.