SHERMAN OAKS—On Wednesday, January 25, at approximately 12 p.m., the driver of a sanitation truck belonging to the city of Los Angeles fatally struck an individual on the 15100 block of Burbank Boulevard nearest the intersection of Burbank Boulevard and Noble Avenue. This marks the fourth death of an unhoused individual in Sherman Oaks. Homeless deaths in Los Angeles County are on the rise.
Authorities pronounced the victim dead at the scene. On January 20, a local homeless woman was found lying dead in the street in front of restaurants and businesses near the intersection of Moorpark Street and Van Nuys Boulevard. Reports indicate that she was well-known to the business owners.
The business owner that found her, Angela Marsden, knew the woman as she frequented the area. Marsden told Eyewitness News that finding her dead, was “traumatizing.”
“It’s not okay and it’s not acceptable,” Marsden said. “If we don’t continue to shine a light in the darkness it won’t get better. How do we get to a place where we allow ourselves to be numb and let a human being be treated less than a dog?”
The Los Angeles Medical Examiners’ Office confirmed to LAMag, that the corpses of two men, one in his 60s and another in his 40s, were also found in the Sherman Oaks this week. There was a fifth unhoused individual who died this month. This woman was not from Sherman Oaks, but also from Los Angeles County.
On January 16, at 8:58 p.m., another woman experiencing homelessness was fatally struck by a car near the intersection of Forest Avenue and Fairmount in the Boyle Heights neighborhood in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declared a State of Emergency to bring in funds to help the homeless population in the area. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors included all of Los Angeles County in the State of Emergency.
Bass initiated a homeless count. “The @LAHomeless Point in Time Homeless Count is absolutely vital to our work to bring unhoused Angelenos inside,” Mayor Bass tweeted.
