Homeless Person Scrambles After Volunteers Spray Water On Loss Angeles Sidewalk

“There is no legitimate reason to treat anyone like that,” the Los Angeles City Controller said following video of the incident. An organization contractor hoses down a sidewalk during a homeless person's scramble to collect their belongings. A video uploaded Thursday shows someone spraying water with a water hose near a man draped with a blanket on Skid Row. San Francisco social enterprise Urban Alchemy confirmed the man with the hose was a contractor for it. He was fired.

“The mission of Urban Alchemy is to serve communities with humanity and dignity, the nonprofit said on Thursday. Our training and values are completely at odds with the actions taken here. In this incident, the practitioner involved is no longer employed by Urban Alchemy."

According to Urban Alchemy, its staff restores cleanliness and safety to the streets." Many of them have served prison sentences. In his statement to X, City Controller Kenneth Mejia said the incident was "disturbing". In an interview with NBC Los Angeles, Sergio Perez, chief of accountability and oversight at the Los Angeles City Controller’s Office, told NBC. 

Perez said the controller, which keeps track of public spending, will question Urban Alchemy's money and ask what services are provided in return.

Furthermore, he pointed out that despite Los Angeles's warm climate, more deaths among the homeless occur due to hypothermia. Los Angeles' unhoused neighbors are not allowed to be treated like that, he said.

"There's no legitimate reason to do that to anyone, including our unhoused neighbors in Los Angeles, "Merce, the highest number for any U.S. city. The 0.4 square miles of Skid Row and 50 or so blocks that cover 0.0001% of the county are home to 2,500 people, 3%.

Last December, three homeless people were killed in Southern California. Water hoses have been used to spray homeless people in California before. In footage from last year, a San Francisco antiques dealer was seen dousing a woman in water and demanding that she “move.”