Days before taking office in 2022, then-City Councilmember-elect Eunisses Hernandez took to social media to praise a news article citing LA County data showing that encampment sweeps rarely lead to permanent housing for the tens of thousands of people living outside.Hernandez called encampment sweeps “a failed and inhumane tactic of dealing with the crises of people experiencing homelessness.”
Months before, Hernandez also tweeted her opposition to LAMC 41.18, a city ordinance that bans sitting, sleeping and lying in certain public areas designated by the City Council. “[City Council] has not articulated how 41.18 is going to reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness because it won’t,” she wrote.Three years later, Hernandez’s views appear to have shifted.Since taking office, arrests under the 41.18 ordinance have gone up in Hernandez’s district. From 2022 to 2023, 41.18 arrests increased from 91 to 260 in the 1st Council District, or by about 185%, according to data from the LA City Controller. The number of arrests dropped to 135 in 2024—a figure that’s still nearly two times higher than in 2022, when Councilmember Gil Cedillo was in office.
Hernandez spokesperson Naomi Roochnik said the Councilmember “has voted against every expansion of 41.18 and continues to oppose policies that punish people simply for being poor.”Residents of an encampment in Hernandez’s district known as the Mountain View Community have also actively pushed back at what they report are police raids related to 41.18, as well as frequent sanitation sweeps — sometimes prompted by Hernandez’s office…