L.A. County supervisors want to bar \u201cpredatory\u201d salespeople who they say prey on vulnerable residents seeking benefits from the region\u2019s social services offices.<\/p>\n
The supervisors unanimously voted Tuesday to explore creating a \u201cbuffer zone\u201d outside county offices, prohibiting certain types of \u201caggressive\u201d solicitation toward people seeking food stamps and cash aid. County lawyers have two months to figure out what such a zone would look like.<\/p>\n
The looming crackdown<\/a> follows a Times investigation that found seven people who said recruiters outside a social services office in South Los Angeles paid them to sue the county<\/a> over sex abuse. Two more later told The Times they, too, were solicited for sex abuse lawsuits outside a county social services office in Long Beach, though they initially believed they were being recruited to be extras in a movie<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are painfully aware of the ongoing allegations of fraud and the pay-to-sue tactics used to recruit clients and file lawsuits against the county,\u201d said Supervisor Janice Hahn, who announced she would push for the buffer zone after the Times investigation. \u201cThere must be greater accountability both to protect survivors seeking justice and to ensure that fraudulent claims and predatory solicitation are stopped at their source.\u201d<\/p>\n The county\u2019s more than 40 social services offices<\/a> act as one-stop shops for residents who need help applying for food, housing and cash assistance. Outside many of the larger offices in poorer areas, a bustling ecosystem thrives with vendors hawking goods and services to those in line.<\/p>\n The supervisors said Tuesday they were troubled by some of the offerings.<\/p>\n \u201cVendors asking for copies of people\u2019s personal documents, trying to sell them products and even recruiting people into claims against the county \u2014 this behavior puts residents at real risk and undermines the trust in our public services,\u201d said Supervisor Lindsey Horvath.<\/p>\n Supervisor Kathryn Barger said she wanted to see reforms that would protect both taxpayers and \u201cvulnerable individuals who are being used as pawns to line the pockets of many of these attorneys.\u201d<\/p>\n The motion passed 3 to 0. Supervisors Hilda Solis and Holly Mitchell, whose district includes the social services office where some of the lawsuit recruitment took place, were absent.<\/p>\n The Times spent two weeks outside the South L.A. office this fall and watched vendors seek out dozens of people with Medi-Cal, the state\u2019s health insurance for low-income Californians. The vendors would pay them anywhere between $3 and $12 to undergo COVID and blood pressure tests, which they said would be billed to their state insurance. Some people said they routinely stopped by the location for quick cash.<\/p>\n Giveaways of free phones are also popular for those who are eligible through a government-subsidized program. Recipients have complained that the service on the phones was often short-lived, with some people returning to the kiosks within a few days after their number stopped working.<\/p>\n Leaders at the Department of Public Social Services, who oversee the offices, say they\u2019re limited in what they can do outside their facilities. Many of the busiest locations are in Los Angeles or smaller cities, where the county has no authority. And regulating where vendors can go on public sidewalks has proved a reliable headache for local governments in the past.<\/p>\n Last year, the Los Angeles City Council eliminated<\/a> the \u201cno-vending zones\u201d it had created in areas where it said street vendors would contribute to congestion. The ban was met with an outcry and a lawsuit<\/a> from vendors who argued street vending had been decriminalized and the city could no longer outlaw the stands.<\/p>\n