LA business owner blasts children’s song on a loop to deter homeless encampments

A California building owner confronted the homeless encampments in downtown Los Angeles with an unusual musical deterrent.

While other businesses have taken to blasting loud music in front of their stores to prevent the homeless population from taking up space, one building owner turned to a repeat dose of playing Pinkfong’s “Baby Shark” through loudspeakers.

‘DEVELOPING: The owner of this property installed a speaker that plays ‘Baby Shark Theme Song’ 24/7 in an attempt to deter homeless encampments. pic.twitter.com/vZ0hxR4rtE

— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) May 15, 2025

Tracy, a woman who lives in the encampment next door to the building, was not amused.

“They played ‘Baby Shark’ all night long,” Tracy, a woman who lives in an encampment next door to the building at the corner of West 11th and Main streets, told  NBC4 Los Angeles.  “They’re doing everything they can to make us move or drive us crazy. But it’s doing the latter. It’s driving people crazy.”

“If we could, we would take that speaker apart,” Tracy said. “We all went through four packs of cigarettes. Lord knows how many soups we ate last night.”

The music, playing through a loudspeaker that was pointed straight at the encampment, reportedly kept her and others up all night.

“This is ridiculous. We can’t get any sleep. We can’t get housing. We can’t eat,” she said. “And now they’re trying to drive us crazy with children’s music.”

Shalom Styles,  who owns the barbershop Styles Barber Lounge around the corner from the encampment, explained to the outlet that “Everything’s going out of business.”

“We’re going to try to handle the homeless if the city can’t handle it. So this is the best way that we could do with being nice,” he said.

Styles defended the practice of playing loud music to deter the homeless.

“It’s not always about being kind because when people are taking away from business, and all the stores are going out of business,” he said, “We’re still here surviving, trying to put up for our family.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is urging cities and counties to take “immediate action” as he unveiled details about his multi-billion-dollar plan to tackle the homeless crisis in his state.

“There’s nothing compassionate about letting people die on the streets,” the Democrat said in a news release as he

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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.

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