A 64-year-old woman is suing Los Angeles after she was hit by a vehicle while trying to deliver food and water to people living at a freeway encampment.
Debra Todd claimed she was being forced to walk on a busy street on October 4, 2020, because a homeless completely encampment blocked the sidewalk.
She was struck by a Nissan at the 101 Freeway overpass, leaving her with injuries to her head, back, hip, leg, and arm.
Speaking to the L.A. Times, Todd said: “Because of the encampment, you couldn’t walk on the sidewalk. You had to walk on the street. There was no light or stop sign anywhere at Gower where I got hit.”
Her lawsuit states that the encampments create dangerous conditions for drivers and pedestrians.
She is accusing the city of allowing homeless encampments to remain for a “substantial amount of time.”
Todd’s attorney, Alan Turlington, said his client suffered a traumatic brain injury that could leave her with a permanent disability.
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, California has an estimated 161,000 homeless people.
On July 19, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Project Homekey plan to combat homelessness, calling the $12 billion project the “largest single investment in providing support for the most vulnerable in American history.”
His office said $800 million was spent on Homekey in 2020 to provide shelter for more than 8,000 people.
Jason Elliott, senior counselor to Gov. Newsom, said: “If you think of last year as a proof of concept, you can think of this year as taking this strategy to scale and making it a centerpiece of California´s approach to housing the homeless.”
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