Los Angeles woman says city ignored neighborhood being terrorized by homeless camp, so she took matters in her own hands

A resident of a ritzy Los Angeles neighborhood said that the city ignored her pleas for help about a homeless encampment, so she decided to take matters in her own hands to solve the problem.

April Silverman of Beverly Grove told KABC-TV that she tried to get help from the city before she decided to take action to prevent a homeless encampment from popping up again in her neighborhood.

“He brought terror into this neighborhood,” said Silverman about a homeless man who began to camp in a tent along Sycamore Avenue near La Brea in October. Very soon, it grew into several individuals living in as many as five cars in the area.

“All day and all night, people used to come by his tent like they were looking for something,” she continued. Silverman said they were using and selling drugs.

“They would come in their car like a drive-thru and you’d come to their window,” she added. “They took cones from the city and they started blocking off all the parking on this block, and they literally took over the entire block. There was garbage everywhere and bad things happening, and fights. We had to call the police. That was our Christmas Eve, calling the police because they were fighting. People were really scared.”

Silverman says one of the individuals associated with the homeless encampment tried to break into her neighbor’s kitchen on New Year’s Eve.

She says she went back and forth with city officials to try to get them to address the problem with very little success. Among them was L.A. councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky’s director of Homelessness Strategies.

Officials scheduled a cleanup for the corner for Thursday that would force the man to remove his tent and belongings, but he would be allowed to return after they cleaned.

“They are not protecting me and this neighborhood”

Silverman realized this was her chance and she coordinated with the commercial owner of the private property to build a structure that would prevent him from returning to the corner.

It worked.

“I felt like the city was defending this man and prioritizing him and ignoring me over the criminal activity that I saw,” Silverman continued. “I had evidence and proof and they just didn’t care. I realized, ‘You know what? I have to take this into my own hands, physically, literally, because they are not protecting me and this neighborhood.’ I have to take it back.”

Although the man has been spotted in the area, the tent has not returned. Some people are still residing in cars near the neighborhood, however.

Yaroslavsky’s office released a statement saying they tried to obtain housing for the man who was camping on the corner. They also asked the LAPD to investigate the claims of criminal behavior.

The median home price in Beverly Grove is more than $1.8 million according to RedFin.