A city-contracted employee was fired after a video showed him spraying a water hose toward an unsheltered person on the sidewalk in Los Angeles’ Skid Row.
Urban Alchemy, a nonprofit contracted by the city of Los Angeles to sanitize streets, said one of its employees was fired after the disturbing video circulated on social media.
“Urban Alchemy exists to lift up our communities, and to serve them with humanity and dignity,” the company said in a social media post that showed a still image of the video. “The action being taken here is unacceptable, and completely antithetical to our training and values. The practitioner involved in this incident no longer works at Urban Alchemy.”
A spokesperson for the nonprofit said the employee in the video was part of their Skid Row Clean Teams. According to them, the unhoused person had just urinated and defecated on the sidewalk. When the employee took the hose to the spot to clean up the mess, the person refused to move.
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“Something like watching that video was so hurtful for me because it really treated the person as an object, as a piece of trash that you would just basically spray down the way,” said Manny Flores, an advocate for the homeless and Executive Director of North Valley Caring Services in the San Fernando Valley.
As a result of the video, LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia said the city is “looking into this contractor and the circumstances that led to this event.” Los Angeles has paid Urban Alchemy $14 million for its services.
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"This behavior is unacceptable,” Mayor Karen Bass’ Press Secretary, De’Marcus Finell, wrote in a statement. “No human being should be treated this way. We are glad that the individual responsible is no longer working for Urban Alchemy."
