Los Angeles cleaning up homeless encampment along San Vicente

BEVERLY GROVE, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- An operation is underway in the Beverly Grove area to house people living in tents and encampments along San Vicente Boulevard.

Mayor Karen Bass and Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky announced the operation, which is part of the city's Inside Safe program.

The location is where business owners recently complained of nude homeless people camping out in the open, making customers and pedestrians uncomfortable.

Beverly Grove area business owner says 'nude homeless encampment' is negatively impacting business

As Eyewitness News spoke with concerned business owners on Wednesday, Bass made a visit to the encampment, hours after her first trip was documented on social media.

"I was here at 8 o'clock this morning, but I wanted to drive by this evening to see the results of what happened," she told ABC7.

The mayor spoke with James Boss, who is among those unhoused individuals who has opted to stay at the encampment for now. He said he wants to stay close to the school where he is studying to be an HVAC technician.

"She asked me what's it going to take for me to get out from over here, and why didn't I take what was offered," he said. "Not that I didn't want it, it's just way out of my way from where I originally stay at."

In response to Boss' concerns, the mayor said she is "going to see if the city can do an individual solution for him."

Bass also took time to speak with business owners and neighbors who stopped by the encampment Wednesday night to praise her for the cleanup.

However, many believe there's still plenty of work left to be done.

"I don't think the relief is going to be complete until all of the tents are gone, and they don't come back," said Bass. "The most important thing is we also have to address why they wound up on the streets to begin with."

Meanwhile, Boss said he's hopeful he'll soon have a new place to call home.

"They said they are going to see what they can do, and we will find out here in the next couple of days," he said. "We might be out here and we might be homeless but we're not bad people."

City officials say in 100 days, the Inside Safe program has provided shelter for more than 1,000 unhoused Angelenos.

The mayor's proposed budget includes $250 million to scale the program citywide.