The city of Los Angeles on Friday cleared a homeless encampment near Hollywood's iconic Sunset Sound recording studio and moved more than 30 people into temporary housing, officials said.
The former camp next to the Sunset Boulevard recording studio had become a flashpoint in the neighborhood. The owner of Sunset Sound had previously complained that the encampment, sidewalk fires and a break-in had threatened the business and inconvenienced high-profile artists.
A stack of blank checks was stolen from the company during a robbery in February, and employees found human feces in a battery, Sunset Sound President Paul Camarata told media outlets earlier this year. He said he installed cacti in huge wooden planters on the sidewalk to try to deter the camp's reappearance.
The encampment was cleared as part of Inside Safe, the program launched by Mayor Karen Bass that took homeless people off the streets and into hotels, motels and other facilities rented by the city.
On Wednesday, a few days before the operation, about a dozen tents and other structures were visible outside the studio at Sunset and Cherokee Avenue.
Tents line the sidewalk on Cherokee Avenue in Hollywood, outside the Sunset Sound recording studio.
(David Zahniser / Los Angeles Times)
Bass's office said that between the Hollywood operation and another intervention at Windsor Square at 6th Street and Van Ness Avenue, more than 35 people were temporarily housed this week.
Photos shared by the mayor's office showed Bass talking to homeless people on the sidewalk outside Sunset Sound and on a city bus on Friday.
Councilman Hugo Soto-Martínez, whose district includes Hollywood, said everyone who lived in the Sunset encampment accepted “services and housing.”
“Many people living in this encampment have been on the same street area for more than five years, and now they can finally move into housing thanks to Inside Safe,” Soto-Martínez said in a statement.
The iconic recording studio, opened in 1960, has been used by high-profile artists including 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 requests for comment Saturday.
Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.
