'Housing Now!’: Advocates plan to wrap City Hall in red tape

On Tuesday at 8 a.m., over 100 housing advocates from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) and Housing Is A Human Right (HHR) division and the Los Angeles office of the National Coalition for the Homeless, will join together for a national day of action to demand “Housing Now” for the homeless community nationwide.

Housing advocates will gather in front of Los Angeles City Hall to wrap the entire perimeter of the building in red tape. 

The ‘Stop the Red Tape Protest’ marks the first anniversary of when the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments on the Grants Pass decision. The 2024 decision made it so that cities like Grants Pass and other ‘localities may impose criminal penalties for acts like public camping and public sleeping, without violating the Eighth Amendment — even if they lack sufficient available shelter space to accommodate their unhoused population.’

Since then, Grants Pass has been sued multiple times over ‘objectively unreasonable’ homeless ordinances that discriminate against people with disabilities. 

“Seven people die on the streets of Los Angeles every day. Delays in bringing permanent housing online immediately through adaptive reuse and new construction are unconscionable,” said Susie Shannon, Policy Director for Housing is a Human Right.  “The city response of breaking up encampments for the more than 45,000 people experiencing homelessness in the City of Los Angeles has led to individuals taking refuge in abandoned buildings and in places where services are scarce."

A recent homeless count estimated that there around 45,000 homeless and unhoused Angelenos in the city. 

According to AHF, the city is far behind in approving building permits and the creation of new and affordable housing units. The red tape and other bureaucratic issues were further exacerbated by the recent fires that affected large swaths of the city.