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NORTH FIGUEROA STREET - Yesterday I drove up Figueroa to the Train Station around Avenue 58. Egads!, I hardly recognize the place - no homeless, everything looking clean, all the way back to Ave 50 and back to the house.
It was obvious that Eunisses Hernandez got the City to clean things up Highland Park, which has lots of businesses, and main roads like Figueroa and York Blvd. It’s a great place to visit, shop, and eat very good food.
The reason I was surprised was because not many days ago, the street was a serious mess. I could hardly recognize the place with all of the homeless. Further, from around Avenue 58 down, it was starting to look like Skid Row. The homeless had taken the street over.
It had gotten so bad that the local businesses banded to create a North Figueroa Coalition, because the City of Los Angeles and especially Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez seemed to simply blow them off, being too busy doing good deeds for the homeless like her Circle program.
There is an LA Code (4.18) that requires that no one can set up a homeless encampment within 500 feet of schools, day care centers, churches, and the like. That may be what the Code says, but dit seemed that Hernandez was ok with the homeless taking over.
The Circle Program
For those who have never heard of it, the Circle Program (Crisis and Incident Response through Community Engagement) seems to be a perfect fit for dealing with homeless. It stands for “Crisis and Incident Response through Community Led Engagement”.
It’s a 24/7 unarmed response program that “employs trained teams to address non-urgent LAPD calls related to unhoused individuals.”
Well gee, I wonder where the money is going to come from in a City that is essentially bankrupt. You can find the details here.
Eunisses Hernandez First Term
I endorsed Eunisses Hernandez in her run for CD1 against Gil Cedillo, who was amongst the last of the lifetime democratic politicians before term limits kicked in. I’ve always been a sucker for outsider progressive democrats, and she seemed to fit the profile.
Silly me. In this case the word “Progressive”, meant a member of the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America), who made no bones that LA City needed more progressive representation on the City Council in lieu of lifer democrats. Endorsed by Councilmember Mike Bonin and Delores Heurta, she beat lifer politician Gil Cedillo and won the seat, to the surprise of many. Cedillo’s problem was that he had a long track record in politics to pour through, demonstrating that he was a go along get along party lifer.
It should be no surprise that Hernandez voted against Mayor Bass’ first budget, because it included $3.2 billion for the Police Department, which represents a large chunk of the entire City Budget, and no money for here Circle Program.
She promised real change, like holding the police liable for mistreating the large homeless population which is all over the District. What she actually did, was to try and change the City Budget to give more money to helping the homeless population and allocating less to the LAPD.
The fact of the matter is that Circle is a great program. However, in the real world each group requires trained outreach workers, but there are not that many people who are trained, In addition there is support from a mental health counselor, and guess what, there again there are that many.
So guess what, creating people for these team positions is is very very expensive, and would take an extended period to train qualified people.
It should be no surprise that the City is essentially broke, and I think that the unpaid debt is getting to about the size of the proposed budget.
Nice ideas, no money and Hernandez knows it. When she came to Glassell Park recently for an update, she concentrated on the upcoming City Budget and why there should be more people certified for the Circle Program.
So what we have now can’t work, and it seems to me that the Councilmember’s solution is to be ok with the resultant homeless encampments.
The 2026 Elections
This year it seems that some of the 2026 races are already up and running, even though the primary isn’t until next June. Already there are at least three candidates challenging Hernandez - Elaine Alaniz Raul Claros, Sylvia Robledo, and Jesus Jesse Rosas.
Remember that the Primary for 2026 elections is in June 3rd 2026. which gives us all plenty of time for a number of candidates to put their hat in the race.
This one should be a doozy!
PS -
Just as I was finishing this article, Hernandez is not alone. It turns out that Pasadena State Senator (D-25) has introduced SB634, which would block local and state authorities from imposing penalties on the homeless, “on unhoused individuals for acts related to their basic survival , and protects those providing assistance to homeless individuals.”
(Tony Butka is an Eastside community activist, who has served on a neighborhood council, has a background in government and is a contributor to CityWatch.)
