They’re not ‘encampments’ — they’re gang shanties

The California Post has reported the shocking story that many homeless encampments around LA aren’t just places where the poor, addicted, and mentally ill take refuge.

They’re also apparently run by gangs. Gangs that deal drugs, collect rent, and enforce debts. 

Gangs that may kill you if you don’t pay.

According to local observers, many encampments are big businesses — in two ways.

People sit among their belongings at an encampment in an alley. Ringo Chiu

One is the “homeless-industrial complex.” That’s the network of non-profit groups that rake in millions of dollars to address a problem that they don’t really want to solve.

Some homeless non-profits, of course, are above board, and work hard to help the indigent.

But others behave like a front for private and political interests. The public money keeps flowing as long as the encampments keep growing.

The other way encampments are big business is in the underground economy.

That’s what experts tell The California Post. 

It’s not just poverty that keeps people on the streets. Criminal gangs use the encampments to make money, stash drugs, stake out turf, and fund their other operations.

Recreational vehicles line a street in Compton. Ringo Chiu

Human trafficking is also taking place in the encampments — and some illegal migrants are finding themselves trapped there.

The California Post spoke to a migrant family from Colombia living on Skid Row with their six-year-old son. 

The encampments in their neighborhood are run by gangs — and foreign cartels. They are surrounded by “zombies” constantly overdosing. 

One advocate says life was better for them back home. For them, the American dream has become an illusion.

But leaving may not be easy for migrant families — not when many still owe money to the cartels. 

They may be living in squalor, but they still owe a debt to those who brought them here.

Some gangsters become victims themselves, succumbing to addiction, stuck in the system they have also enforced.

The “gang shanties” are further evidence of the breakdown in law and order.

As former LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva commented, gangs move in wherever laws aren’t being enforced.

LA has all kinds of laws to prevent the spread of encampments. 

Anti-camping ordinances; ordinary criminal laws; and, yes, federal immigration law, which state and local officials oppose.

Until now, there has been no political will to enforce these laws — or to protect the vulnerable people who are not just living in poverty, but who are living in fear.

Perhaps the truth will force action, and change.