Homeless Advocates Group Holds Rally, Sleepout to Reclaim Public Space in Venice

A rally was held Sunday morning at the LAPD substation on Venice Beach to end an overnight "sleepout" held to combat what organizers calls the "criminalization of homelessness."

The two-day event was held by the Los Angeles Community Action Network to support the homeless, whose presence, the group claims, is considered the crime.

The group chose Martin Luther King Jr. Day’s weekend to evoke the spirit, life and work of the civil rights leader and to reclaim “public space in Venice and uplift the rights of all people to sit, rest, share food and otherwise exist,” according to the group’s Facebook post.