Silver Lake resident Chris Wu lives near the Sunset Boulevard overpass at Myra Avenue, where encampments once lined the route students walked to Thomas Starr King Middle School. Those camps were cleared eight to nine months ago. Now, with the Los Angeles City Council's Aug. 19 vote to repeal the anti-camping zone that helped keep the area clear, Wu worries they could return.

"It's actually kind of scary for me … I can't imagine the kids having to go past them to go back to school," Wu told The Eastsider.

The council voted 10-3 to rescind 12 enforcement zones across Council District 13, covering areas in East Hollywood, Echo Park, Glassell Park, Hollywood and Silver Lake. The zones, created under Municipal Code Section 41.18, banned sitting, sleeping or lying in designated public areas. Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez proposed the repeal, arguing the zones established by his predecessor, Mitch O'Farrell, displaced people without connecting them to housing.

"Displacing our neighbors from block-to-block, or in many cases, district-to-district, doesn't help them find housing," Soto-Martinez said at the Aug. 19 council meeting, as reported by LA Mag. "In fact, in most cases, it makes it much harder for us to help them, because they lose their belongings, they get fined, and many times, they are arrested."

The repeal took effect immediately. A graffiti-covered sign prohibiting sitting, lying or sleeping still marks the former zone near the Myra Avenue underpass, but it no longer carries legal weight.

Paley Martin, another Myra Avenue resident, pointed to a different pressure: recreational vehicles occupied by some unhoused people create parking problems on streets where spots are already scarce. "I don't know what the right solution is," Martin said.

Ibrahim Mimou, co-chair of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council, said residents have packed recent council meetings voicing frustration over rising homelessness. Mimou acknowledged the zones weren't a cure-all but said the repeal "just removes a whole layer of enforceable laws."

@votemimou: "41.18 enforcement zones have been repealled in Silver Lake without adequate consultation with the entirety of our neighborhood."

Soto-Martinez's office said the move frees up resources to direct people to services and housing. The councilmember's office also told LA Mag that homelessness in District 13 has dropped 40%, from 500 individuals in 2025 to 396 in 2026, citing Los Angeles Homelessness Services Authority counts.

Councilmember Traci Park of District 11, who voted against the repeal, pushed back at the Aug. 19 meeting. "If you don't want those protections in your district, that's a decision you can make and explain to your constituents," Park said. "But I've seen what happens when we abandon our public spaces."

No public meeting on the repeal's local impact has been scheduled by the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council.