The city of Los Angeles cleared a homeless encampment near Hollywood’s iconic Sunset Sound Studios on Friday and moved more than 30 people into temporary housing, officials said.
The long-time encampment next to Sunset Boulevard Recording Studios has become a neighborhood hotspot. Sunset Sound bosses have previously complained that encampments, sidewalk fires and break-ins threatened the business and made high-profile artists uncomfortable.
Sunset Sound president Paul Camarata told the media earlier this year that a stack of blank checks was stolen during a break-in in February and employees found human feces on the drum set. He said he planted cacti in large wooden planters on the sidewalk to try to discourage the encampment from returning.
The encampments are being cleared as part of the “Safe Within” program, launched by Mayor Karen Bass, which moves homeless people off the streets and into city-leased hotels, motels and other facilities.
About a dozen tents and other structures could be seen outside the studio at Sunset Boulevard and Cherokee Avenue on Wednesday, just days before the surgery.
Tents line the sidewalk outside Sunset Sound Studios on Cherokee Boulevard in Hollywood.
(David Zanicer/Los Angeles Times)
Bass’s office said more than 35 people were temporarily housed this week between Operation Hollywood and another intervention at Windsor Place at Sixth Street and Van Ness Avenue.
Photos shared by the mayor’s office showed Bass talking to homeless people on a sidewalk outside Sunset Bay and on a city bus on Friday.
Assemblyman Hugo Soto-Martinez, whose district includes Hollywood, said everyone who lives in Sunset Camp receives “services and housing.”
“Many of the people living in this encampment have been living in the same area on the street for more than five years and now they are finally able to move into housing because of the internal security plan,” Soto-Martinez said in a statement.
The iconic recording studio opened in 1960 and has been used by Elton John, Taylor Swift, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin , the Doors, Janis Joplin, Van Halen and Prince.
Representatives for Sunset Sound did not respond to a request for comment Saturday.
Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.
