Protesters denounced such "comprehensive cleanups," the term used by the city for cleanups that require homeless people to remove their tents, as destructive, costly and inhumane, and argued that they put people at greater risk of becoming ill with COVID-19.
"It makes more sense to get folks indoors than to continue to harass them week after week with sweeps," said Ashley Bennett, co-founder of the progressive group Ground Game LA. "Good cleaning and trash pickup are services we absolutely deserve. But moving things every single week amidst a pandemic - it just doesn't make sense."
Activists took to the streets of Hollywood on Wednesday to protest what they described as disruptive sweeps of homeless encampments and demand that L.A. leaders commandeer hotels to house people living on the streets.
The Services Not Sweeps coalition said it had booked hotel rooms for more than 20 people who sleep near a city shelter in Hollywood and was occupying their spots on the street to resist a scheduled cleanup in the area.
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