The downturn of the economy is driving more people to scavenging, annoying some residents with trash bins and recycling carts on the curbside outside their houses. Residents in Santa Ana are putting their recyclables into containers designed to withstand the strength of bears to keep away scavengers.
"Locks are often used to protect commercial recycling and trash containers from dumpster divers and scavengers, but only recently have they been engineered for residential purposes.
The city of Los Angeles has considered locks to curb scavenging but hasn't found anything practical. Oceanside has installed anti-scavenging locks on the receptacles at its beaches and harbor, albeit reluctantly."
Comments
This is Evil
Locking trash to inhibit the homeless is one of the most callous things I have ever seen. The downtown LA "Business Improvement District" has started doing it as well. We should be ashamed of ourselves.
It's well known that we don't give a damn about the homeless as a society, as evinced by the pitifully inadequate public funding for health care and supportive housing. Homeless people often survive by foraging for stuff to recycle for a few coins. They are performing a public service, often gathering material that would have gone to a landfill. They are demonstrating a desire to work and take care of themselves.
Our response? Cut off their means of survival. I can't even summon the eloquence to properly denounce this disgusting, myopic, mean spirited, ignorant, and evil policy.
Can't we even let them have our trash?!