A controversial policy that forces all riders to exit their LA Metro train at the end of its nightly run, stranding hundreds of homeless passengers left to wander in unfamiliar neighborhoods without assistance, will receive a second look from the county transit agency.
LA Metro Board of Directors voted 11-0 Thursday to re-evaluate the agency’s de-boarding policy, study the negative impacts on end-of-line communities and coordinate with the cities, Los Angeles County and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) to find after-hour shelters and drug addiction and mental health treatment for the transit-riding homeless population.
The communities most affected — many of whom have blamed LA Metro for contributing to upticks in their homeless populations, increasing crime, noise and illegal encampments — include Long Beach, Norwalk, East Los Angeles, Downtown Los Angeles, North Hollywood, Santa Monica and Azusa.
Sometimes called “homeless dumping,” under the current policy all riders are escorted off the train so Metro crews can clean the train cars for morning service. The current policy was in response to passengers who complained Metro’s train cars were filthy.
But Metro did not coordinate the policy with nonprofit groups who provide shelters, nor with the county’s homeless outreach teams, said Los Angeles County Supervisor and Metro board member Kathryn Barger. “We put a plan in play to empty the cars for cleaning, but we didn’t coordinate on the county side,” she said during the board meeting.
Between midnight and 1 a.m. in downtown Long Beach, for example, four A Line (Blue) trains go out of service and each one requires all remaining passengers to exit the train, according to a Metro staff report.
“While this policy makes sense for purposes of cleaning the trains before they return to service each morning, it also results in kicking unhoused riders off the train and onto city streets at an hour when housing and services are generally not available to assist these individuals,” the report concluded.
L.A. County Supervisor and Metro board member Janice Hahn, who co-authored the motion, said a staff member counted between 20 and 36 unhoused riders exiting the A Line (Blue) trains in Long Beach each night.
Members of the East Village community in downtown Long Beach have surveyed and taken videos of A Line passengers exiting at the terminus at First Street near Pine Avenue. Council member Suzie Price said in an interview that residents often see 50-60 people kicked off the train on a nightly basis.
Price said as a result, dozens of homeless people wander Long Beach every night, often confused about where they are and unable to get back to where they have shelter. “There are no services near them. There are no restrooms nearby. There is no one there to meet them and take them to a shelter,” Price said in an interview.
The LA Metro board motion asked staff for an evaluation of the problem, and to return to the board with an analysis and suggestions in January.
“I want staff to do more than just evaluate it. We want them to come back with some solutions on how we can do things differently,” Hahn said.
But many board members said they don’t want to rescind the policy because the trains must be cleaned. They’d prefer to see the county and affected cities provide services to the transient population, saying Metro’s main mission is transportation, not solving endemic societal problems.
The Long Beach City Council wrote a letter to Metro on Oct. 4, asking for a re-evaluation of the policy and help with finding more resources. The city’s homeless population has jumped 62% over the past two years, according to results of a point-in-time survey of those without permanent shelter, released in July.
Residents of the Long Beach East Village said the Metro end-of-line policy has contributed to the homeless increase. They’ve offered suggestions such as adding a stop, at the train line terminus, for the Metro 60 bus line that runs all night into Los Angeles.
Some want to see changes to the policy.
“The policy is cruel. It throws people out onto the streets where they don’t know where they are,” said Joe Harding, who lives and works in Long Beach and is the former president of the East Village Association.
He spent time riding the A Line during late night hours and saw many unhoused people sleeping on the train. When they were forced to exit, many didn’t know where they were and wanted to return to Los Angeles, the northern terminus of the train, he said. No one from Metro was there to help them find other transportation, Harding said.
Because nearby public restrooms are locked at night, and no shelter beds are available at that late hour, they are left on their own. He witnessed one woman exit the train and defecate near the tracks.
Orsa Modica, owner of Modica’s Restaurant and Deli at 455 E. Ocean Blvd., located not far from the train terminus, said she knows the regular unhoused population who visit her restaurant and its vicinities. But in the last several months, she’s seen new homeless people.
“It is not only affecting myself and my business but it is affecting the people who live in the community,” she said in an interview.
In August, a man who appeared to be homeless entered her restaurant and began shouting. He was naked from the waist down, she said. “This guy went up to a table with three little girls having a birthday party. We were all scared and mortified.” When she called 911, the man ran after hearing police sirens.
“They have mental health issues. And they are becoming more bold,” Modica said.
Her group recently counted 73 people exiting the train after midnight. Of those, 50 were homeless, she said. “They were in the middle of the street saying ‘Where am I? I don’t know where to go,’ ” she said.
In the city of Azusa in the San Gabriel Valley, the L (Gold) Line from East Los Angeles, Downtown LA and Pasadena has its easterly terminus at the Azusa Pacific University/Citrus College station adjacent to the Rosedale planned housing community. There, homeless individuals riding the train are forced to exit at 2 a.m.
Azusa Mayor Robert Gonzales said most of the homeless are from Los Angeles. He wants Metro to reconsider its policy. “Train it back to Union Station (in downtown Los Angeles), where the resources are. Or have some sort of transportation for these individuals,” he said in an interview.
Instead, those forced to exit set up encampments less than 50 yards from front doors of homes. Some sleep in the stalls of the parking structure and are in danger of being run over when commuters arrive in the morning. Other pitch tents on the platform.
“You’ll get anywhere from 10-12 on a given night, filtering out into a neighborhood that is right in the middle of a residential community,” Gonzales said in an interview. He said neighbors call police when they hear loud voices at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. Often, neighbors hear the late-night riders arguing with Metro officials. “It becomes a fighting match,” he said.
Azusa will soon open a substation next to the L Line train station staffed with Metro security, he said. “Hopefully that will deter some of the negative impacts,” he said. The city is collecting funds to build a homeless shelter near the north San Gabriel river bed, where many homeless reside.
Whittier City Councilman Fernando Dutra, appointed to the Metro board by the Gateway Cities Council of Governments, said he’s already received calls from Whittier residents concerned about becoming the end of the line when an eastside extension of the L Line is built between there and East Los Angeles.
He’s also heard from Norwalk residents located at the terminus of the C (Green) Line.
“Fundamentally, (the Metro report) will define the problem and look for solutions. My expectation is we will get some answers in January,” he said in an interview.
Price was pleased that her efforts on the Long Beach City Council have prompted LA Metro to work on fixing the problem. “We are thrilled to see them acting so quickly. We are not saying ‘not in our backyard,’ we are saying please partner with us because we can’t handle this capacity.”
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LA Metro to consider end-of-line policy review after a Long Beach City Council request
Long Beach will ask LA Metro to reconsider its end-of-line deboarding policy
Long Beach homeless population spikes 62% compared to 2020, survey reveals; officials blame pandemic
LA County wants to help Metro remove homeless from trains, buses, shelters and platforms
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