An Important Message to Hollywood 4WRD Members and Stakeholders
To our Hollywood 4WRD community,
We know many of you are already talking about this, and we want to make sure you hear directly from us. The Los Angeles City Council has voted to remove 12 revocable LAMC 41.18 enforcement zones within Council District 13, and several of those zones sit right in the heart of Hollywood 4WRD’s service area. Hollywood 4WRD was not consulted nor included in any conversations leading up to this action, despite its direct impact on the neighborhood and the coordinated work happening here. This touches the work we do every day, the people we serve, the neighborhoods we call home, and the businesses and residents who make up our community. We are paying close attention, and we want you to know that your voice matters deeply to us as we navigate this together.
A Little History: What Is LAMC 41.18?
Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 41.18 was substantially revised and passed as Ordinance No. 187127 on July 28, 2021, taking effect September 3rd of that year. The ordinance made it unlawful to sit, lie, sleep, or store personal property in public rights-of-way under specific circumstances, including obstructing ADA-mandated passage, blocking driveways, building entrances, or fire hydrants. It also created a process for the City Council to designate enforcement zones near sensitive uses such as schools, parks, libraries, and freeway underpasses.
The Numbers: Hollywood Enforcement at a Glance
LAMC 41.18 enforcement begins with a request to voluntarily comply. If this fails after a reasonable time period, LAPD may escalate enforcement to the level of an administrative citation or, in rare cases, a misdemeanor notice to appear. Custodial arrests are almost nonexistent except in cases where there is an outstanding warrant. In the Hollywood 4WRD Service Area, available public data for the period running from September 2021 through April 2025 show 44 citations; 26 (59%) of these were subsection A (obstruction) violations, which is still in effect everywhere. Only five (11%) citations were zone based and four (9%) citations escalated to a misdemeanor notice to appear, and no custodial arrests were made based on LAMC 41.18 alone.
The available evidence we have also suggests that the impacts of 41.18 on homelessness in broader Hollywood are likely smaller than direct housing interventions like Inside Safe. A LAHSA report requested by our City Council found that 81 percent of encampment sites cleared under 41.18 had some people return, and that 94 percent of people at those sites wanted some form of shelter while only 18 percent received it. RAND suggests that a 49% decline in Hollywood’s unsheltered homelessness in 2024 – mostly in tent dwellers – is more related to the over 300 Inside Safe placements within our service area.
What Has Changed?
CD13 has published a detailed FAQ and informational flyer that addresses many of the questions being raised about this change, including what the rescission does and does not affect. We encourage all members to review those materials directly as a starting point.
Of the 12 revocable 41.18 zones subject to removal, four (4) fall within the Hollywood 4WRD service area. The automatic 500-foot restrictions around schools and day-care centers remain in effect. The action by CD13 will stand down anti-camping enforcement in the red areas on the map below. The blue areas are still fully enforceable under 41.18, and obstruction enforcement is still in effect everywhere:
In total, this change means an additional 2.6% of our Hollywood service area footprint will not be subject to zone-based anti-camping enforcement.
This is a small overall change, but a very real one for communities in the affected areas. These are places where seniors access services, where families visit parks, and where community members attend religious services. The removal of the enforcement zones at these sites means the rules are changing, and our community needs clarity on what that will look like in practice.
The recent success in encampment resolution has been complicated by the changing picture of unsheltered homelessness. Both RAND data and Hollywood 4WRD’s own count suggest a relative rise in totally exposed “rough sleeping”. This population is harder for outreach workers to maintain contact with and has more acute needs. To continue progress, we may need to entertain new strategies.
Across all the perspectives we are hearing, one point of common ground stands out: a desire to see people experiencing homelessness move into stable housing as quickly as possible. That shared aspiration should anchor this conversation, and Hollywood 4WRD will continue to pursue evidence-based strategies that work.
We Are Listening, and We Want to Hear From You
Service providers and outreach workers have raised concern about what enforcement disruption has meant for their outreach efforts. Business owners and housed neighbors are raising concerns about what they have seen on their blocks. Unhoused community members have a range of experiences and perspectives of their own. That full range of voices belongs in this conversation, and Hollywood 4WRD is committed to being a focal point for collecting and elevating all of it. Hollywood 4WRD believes that continued dialogue between CD13 and our community is essential as this change takes effect.
Share your feedback: We have an inbox for feedback on this issue. Whether you are a service provider, business owner, neighbor, or someone with lived experience of homelessness, we want to hear from you at info@hollywood4WRD.org.
Join Us September 1st: We have made plans to host a community meeting on September 1st at 3:00 PM, immediately following our member meeting. We have invited CD13 to join us, and our goal is to share more about what we’re hearing relative to this change, answer questions, and hear from you directly.
Our Commitment to You
Whatever you believe about this decision, our commitment at Hollywood 4WRD does not waver. We will keep showing up for the people most vulnerable in our community, for the businesses that anchor our neighborhoods, and for the outreach workers who do the hardest work every day. We will keep listening, because those who feel policy changes most directly deserve a seat at the table. And we will keep working, because our mission to end and prevent homelessness in Greater Hollywood does not change regardless of where enforcement lines are drawn.
With care and commitment,
Jackie Provost
Interim Executive Director
