For months, the City of Lynwood has tried to work with CalTrans on cleaning up homeless encampments on their property, but within our City limits. With two major freeways cutting through the City, CalTrans owns a lot of property in Lynwood – property they do not properly maintain, but very near our residential neighborhoods and schools. This has posed problems for our residents.
To alleviate the problem, the City of Lynwood inquired whether it could legally clean up these encampments. Unfortunately, the answer is a resounding “NO.” If the City were to clean up homeless encampments on CalTrans property, it could be sued for a number of reasons and negatively impact the City’s finances.
To make matters worse, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic prevented CalTrans from approaching homeless individuals and clearing encampments for health reasons, which means that the problem is only growing.
It is up to CalTrans to maintain its property and that includes keeping the homeless from setting up camps at off and on ramps, underpasses and under the 710/105 transition roads.
If you would like CalTrans to maintain its property in your City, you can let them know by submitting a service request: https://csr.dot.ca.gov/
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