Vol 4

March 2016

No. 3

Opposition Mounts over City Seizure of Tiny

Homes for the Homeless
Seizure by city workers of three Tiny
Houses from homeless people February
12 has led to an outpouring of protest,
ranging from the prestigious Los Angeles
Times to a demonstration at City Hall and
a lawsuit filed in the federal U.S. District
Court, as well as widespread support for
the Tiny House efforts by a wide range of
homeless activists and their supporters.
There can be little question that if you
are living under a tarp that one of these
6X10 foot wooden shed-type structures,
with a lock on the door and solar panel
for electricity, is a huge improvement. To
date, 37 of them have been built, at a cost
in materials of $1200 each, by Elvis Summers. He has raised more than $100,000
for the project from a GoFundMe appeal,
and has distributed them over a wide area,
from Van Nuys to Compton and Inglewood.
The city government has insisted that
the little houses are not needed because
it plans to construct housing for all of the
homeless in the county. Those plans, however, lie in a vague future at least ten years
away and to even get on the drawing board
are dependent on passing multiple ballot
measures that require a two-thirds majority
and may not even be scheduled for a vote

Special Report:

Americas Tiny
House Villages
for the Homeless
See page 4

before the spring of 2017. That does nothing for someone living on the streets now.
Officials also point to the 500 homeless that they have housed over the last 18
months, which leaves 30,500 of the countys
homeless living on the streets. Another offer
is the shelter system. While there are some
openings, these are short-term, putting
those who accept them back on the streets.
They are reportedly bug-infested barracks
where theft and violence are prevalent and
accommodations consist of a cot in a giant
room filled with them. Many require that the
resident leave during the day, there is zero
privacy, all possessions to be safe need to
be kept on ones person at all times. Many
demand cold turkey break from alcohol
or drugs, and require participation in religious indoctrination. In addition to these
disincentives some homeless people have
dogs, which are not allowed in the shelters.

Illegal car sales on Normandie Avenue

north of Washington Blvd. before City
Council approved ban in 2013. New
ban will cover Normandie from the
10 Freeway to Martin Luther King Jr
.Blvd.

City Council Bans Car

Sales on Normandie
Avenue

The lawsuit claims that peoples health

was endangered by expelling them from the
little houses. Some were also arrested on
charges of having stolen shopping carts. Carl
Mitchell, 62, has severe diabetes with open
wounds in his legs. He lost his little house,
was arrested, and put back on the streets at
night when it was 40 degrees, without his
medication. Judy Coleman, one of the litigants in the lawsuit, also had her little house
taken and was arrested for having a stolen
shopping cart. She was released February
14 without her diabetic medication and
ended up in the hospital with pneumonia.

For years this report and its predecessor, published by the Empowerment
Congress North neighborhood council,
have called attention to illegal car sales
on Normandie Avenue south of the 10
Freeway. Happily, the City Council on
February 26 voted to approve a proposal
from the councils Transportation Committee to ban all parking of cars with For
Sale signs on Normandie between the 10
Freeway and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
The motion was approved unanimously
and referred to the City Attorney to draft
an amendment to LAMC Section 87.55.
That ordinance will go to the Council for
a vote before the ban comes into force.
Typically there are 10 or more
cars with For Sale signs clustered to-

Continued on p. 3

Continued on p. 2

What Happened to the People

Whose Little Houses were
Taken Away

Homeless and Problem Property Report

Distributed monthly by email by the Southwest LAPD Community Police Advisory Board (CPAB).
Community-Police Advisory Boards were created by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1993 to give community members a vehicle to provide advice to and raise issues about crime and police-community relations with their local police stations.
Each of the 21 community police stations has its own CPAB chapter. Southwest CPAB is affiliated to
the Southwest Community Police Station, 1546 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90062.
Our aim is to identify homeless and problem property locations within Southwest LAPDs area, roughly from
the 10 Freeway on the north to Vernon on the south, and from the Harbor Freeway on the east to La Cienega. We
log homeless camps, and locations such as blocked alleys, illegal businesses, and open junk storage. We accept
requests from residents to look into such problems. If there appears to be a definite violation we photograph it and
report it to the appropriate agency: Homeless outreach teams, Building and Safety, Housing, LAPD, Street Services, etc. Determination of the validity of this judgment is always made by the professional staffs of these city
agencies. We seek help for the homeless from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and other organizations. If you want to receive these emails (or if you want to unsubscribe) drop us an email at the address below.
Homeless and Problem Property Committee chair: Leslie Evans
communications@southwestcpab.org 323-574-5586 www.southwestcpab.org
Southwest CPAB meets on the first Monday of each month, usually at 6:30 pm. Our meetings are open to the
public and you are welcome to attend. The location changes, so drop us an email to get an announcement. Our next
meeting date and place are also listed on our website, www.southwestcpab.org.
Southwest CPAB is a member of the South Los Angeles Homeless Coalition. This covers the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authoritys Service Planning Area 6 (SPA6), which runs roughly from the 10 Freeway to Compton and
Paramount, and from Baldwin Village to the borders of Huntington Park, Vernon, and South Gate. The SPA6 Homeless Coalition is hosted by the Homeless Outreach Program Integrated Care System at 5715 S. Broadway.

Closed Cases?
We usually use this page for
a list of closed cases: homeless
camps that have disappeared or
problem properties that have been
fixed. In March no existing locations changed, but we do have 7
new homeless locations to report..

Contents
Current problem locations:
p. 8-9
Homeless locations/issues:
p. 10-20

Car Sales Banned on Normandie Avenue

continued from p. 1
gether on Normandie, mainly between Jefferson Blvd. and 37th Place.
City code distinguishes between a
person selling their own car on the street
and someone making their living this way.
LAMC SEC. 80.73.1(a) says No person
who deals in or whose business involves the
sale, rental, leasing, repair, repossession or
transportation of new or used vehicles shall
park or leave standing on any one or more
streets or alleys during the conduct of such
business any vehicle held for sale, trade,
rental, leasing, repair, repossession, shipment, transportation or other disposition.
Dealers get around this by buying throwaway cell phones to have
different phone numbers on each car.
The main stretch for illegal car sales on
Normandie used to be between the 10 Freeway and Adams Blvd. Then-CD1 City Councilmember Ed Reyes got the city to install

1-hour parking signs. The illegal business

then moved north to Normandie between
Washington Blvd. and the 10 Freeway, out of
our district. In 2011 the City Council passed
LAMC 87.55. This is an absolute prohibition of parking vehicles with For Sale signs
- first violation: $100, second violation:
$250, third and subsequent violation: $500.
To not violate the First Amendment, however, this law can only be applied on a small
number of specific streets designated by the
City Council. Neighbors near Normandie
and Washington Blvd. circulated petitions to
have 87.55 applied to Normandie between
15th Street and the 10 Freeway. This was
approved by the City Council in October
2013 and signs were put up to warn off
violators. The underground car dealers then
moved their business to Normandie south of
Jefferson. The new amendment to 87.55 will
put an end to this illegal nuisance business.

Debate over Tiny Houses for the Homeless

Continued from p. 1
The LA Times ran a March 10 editorial
headed, If the homeless cant have their tiny
houses, what can they have? The editors
declared of the citys plans that they will
cost hundreds of millions of dollars and
years of study and review to implement. . .
And while tiny housing dotting a sidewalk
might not have been the safest alternative,
nor a real substitute for permanent housing,
they, at least, offered an interim solution.
And interim solutions are crucial. Its not
enough to decry the existence of people
living on streets and in parks throughout
the area and crammed like war refugees on
the sidewalks of Skid Row while the city
and county work on their long-term plans.
They added: Instead of simply saying no
to tiny houses, the city should take a good
look at where and how they might work.

A tiny roof over ones head

is better than none.
Along these lines the newspaper ran a
March 20 Op-Ed under the title A tiny roof
over ones head is better than none. There,
architecture critic Mimi Zeiger writes, in
the face of an unabating housing crisis,
tiny houses could be part of a system that
supports rather than criminalizes those who
fall in homelessness. She points to tiny
house villages for the homeless that have

One of Elvis Summers Tiny Houses. 42nd Street bridge over the Harbor
Freeway. This is one of the three houses that were confiscated by city workers.
operated well in other cities for years. She
mentions Dignity Village in Portland and
Square One Village in Eugene, Oregon.
There are nine more in other cities and
still more on the drawing board. These
villages are mostly set up on public land
and provided with public toilets and showers. They typically cost $2,500 each. And
they get the little houses off the sidewalks.
What the village lacks in plumbing, Zeiger

Elvis Summers on right.

writes, it makes up in safety and humanity values currently missing from L.A.s
crackdown on those living on the street.
She reminds us that Los Angeles once
had such a tiny town for the homeless,
Dome Village, led by Ted Hayes. This little
community of tiny geodesic dome huts was
founded in 1993 and ran well until it closed
in 2006 when land rents became too high.
As for where to get the $1.85 billion
to pay for ten years of construction of tiny
apartments for the homeless, one thought is
to take it from MTA planned transit expansion. The MTA is asking for $120 billion, 65
times more than the supposedly unreachable
budget to tackle homeless housing. The
huge appropriation is to cover new rail and
subway lines and some additions to bus and
bike lanes. The $120 billion dwarfs the $15
billion already spent, while the March 20
American Interest points out that there are
10% fewer boardings on the Los Angeles
MTA system than in 2006, and that the
decline was accelerating. Los Angeles is
too large and spread out to ever get most of
its people to ride mass transit, unlike older
compact cities like New York and Chicago.
So maybe the MTA project should be scaled
back a little - one or two 64ths? to help
solve a genuine humanitarian crisis. - LEn

Special Report:

Americas Tiny House Villages for the Homeless

he debate in Los Angeles city government over what

to do with the tiny houses for the homeless, being built
and distributed by Elvis Summers, needs to include awareness
of the nationwide experiments taking place in cities across the
country in establishing small villages of these kind of structures as one additional tool in reducing homelessness. They are
a transitional step between the streets and permanent housing,
while permanent housing for all of the homeless remains a
distant dream. This is the obvious alternative to the positions
currently dominating the debate: either to leave the little houses on the streets or to destroy them and expel their residents.
No one imagines that there will be enough of these kind
of shelters to end homelessness or that they would be ideal
if there were. But as it sinks in that providing real homes
for such multitudes is at best relegated to the far future, city
councils and even the federal government are beginning to
see the tiny house movement, adapted to the homeless, as
contributing to getting people off the street and restoring their
dignity by providing a dry, secure, stable place to live, and
privacy that is impossible sleeping under a tarp in an alley.
The typical pattern for these settlements is to find a
piece of land, preferably an acre or two. Some cities have
used existing prefab wooden sheds, commonly 8 X 10.
To work best, the place needs a central building with running water and electricity, for toilets, showers, and communal cooking. Building codes for housing are often
sidestepped by classifying the villages as campgrounds or
putting the houses on wheels and rating them as trailers.
At least 11 cities have such tiny house villages already
in operation or under construction. The Christian Science
Monitor reports: More cities are turning to tiny homes
as part of an innovative solution to curb homelessness.
The latest city to join the tiny house movement is Seattle, which is preparing to open its first tiny house village, a collection of 14 petite homes built on a plot of land
owned by a local Lutheran church. (January 21, 2016)
The article quotes Lee Jones, a spokesperson for the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, as
saying Its certainly something that we would encourage other communities to take a look at when it comes to
creating solutions for housing the chronically homeless.

Dome Village (Los Angeles, 1993-2006)

847 Golden Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles. Founded by
homeless activist Ted Hayes on rented land, the complex hosted
20 geodesic domes and housed 34 people, some of them couples.
Eight of the domes were for kitchens, bathrooms, laundries, and
computers. The other twelve provided shelter for single individuals or families. The fiberglass domes cost $10,000 each. They were
easy to repair and maintain, made of polyester fiberglass. Funding
for the village was provided by the Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) oil
company. This was probably the oldest and most successful of the
Tiny House homeless villages, right here in our own city. It lasted 13
years and was ended only when the landlord raised the rent too high.

Dignity Village (Portland, Oregon)

NE 33rd and Sunderland, Portland, OR 97211. Founded in 2004.
This began in 2000 as a tent city. Rather than disperse it, in 2001
the city found an alternate location near the airport and officially

recognized the place under the State of Oregon code definition

of a campground. It now houses 60 homeless people, some in
home-built wooden mini houses and others in tents. The property
includes showers, sanitary facilities, private and communal food and
flower gardens, and communal cooking and refrigeration facilities.
Dignity Village is incorporated in Oregon as a 501(c)(3) membership-based non-profit organization. Its rules require: No violence toward yourself or others. No illegal substances or alcohol or paraphernalia on the premises or within a one-block radius. No stealing. No disruptive behavior. All members are required to contribute to the upkeep.

acres, where there are 30 tiny houses (144 square feet) for 30 homeless adults. There is a community building which has bathrooms,
showers, a kitchen and dining room. There is a vegetable garden.
It is a self-governing community overseen by the Panza nonprofit. There are two full-time staff, a program manager for operations and a case manager who helps residents get social services.

Second Wind Cottages (Newfield,

New York)

Opportunity Village (Square One

Villages) (Eugene, Oregon)
111 N. Garfield St., Eugene, OR 97402. Opened in August 2013 as
a transitional micro-housing pilot project. It has about 30 individuals and couples. It is overseen by the nonprofit Square One Villages.
It includes toilet and laundry facilities and a communal kitchen. The
houses are 60 to 80 square feet. Initial cost for the whole place was
$98,000 plus donated labor. Operating costs are around $1,800/month.
The one-year pilot project has since been renewed for a
two-year extension by an 8-0 City Council vote. It has 5 basic
rules: No violence. No theft. No alcohol or illegal drugs onsite. No persistent, disruptive behavior. And everyone must
contribute to the operation and maintenance of the village.

Quixote Village (Olympia, Washington)

3350 Mottman Rd SW, Olympia, WA 98512. Like Dignity Village in Portland, Quixote Village began as a tent camp. After six
years it moved at the end of 2013 to its current location of 2.17

1435 Elmira Rd, Newfield, NY 14867. Newfield is a short drive

from Ithaca. The cottages are on the property of an auto mechanic
and devout Christian named Carmen Guidi. There are six cottages
at a cost of $12,000 to $15,000 each. Guidi raised $150,000 and
got volunteers to build the cottages to provide housing for homeless
men from a nearby tent camp. Guidi plans to build 12 more cottages,
then found a second village for women. The cottages, untypically
for such camps, have running water, electricity, and a stove. Svante
Myrick, the mayor of Ithaca, is reported quoted as saying, If we can
take the model and replicate what we canthat is, small stand-alone
shelters, instead of mass sheltering where its hard to keep folks safe
and in some cases its hard to keep them sober, giving them units
where they can actually have a space of their own, thats warm and
secureI think thats a model that certainly can be replicated.

Occupy Madison Village (Madison,

Wisconsin)
304 N. Third St, Madison, Wisconsin 53704. The smallest of the
tiny house communities, it contains only three little houses and a

former gas station that now serves as bathroom, kitchen, office, and
a woodworking shop. The houses, built by volunteers, are 98 square
feet and have electric heat. Residents must do 32 hours of work in order to move in. They then must work 10-hours per week till they have
500 hours total. Once residents have paid-off their homes they must
still contribute 10-hours per week to the maintenance of the village.

The U Dome 120 has a diameter of 120 feet at a lower price.

Residents are allowed to stay for two years, during which they
must obtain a source of income and look for permanent housing.
The use of drugs and alcohol within 100 yards of the camp is
prohibited. The managing foundation provides case management.

Community First Village (Austin, Texas)

Village of Hope (Fresno, CA)
412 F Street, Fresno, CA 93706. Established in 2004 by the
Poverello House nonprofit. It claims it can provide 124 beds per
night in volunteer-built 8-by-10-foot wooden sheds. There are
two cots per shed. They do not have electricity or running water.
The sheds have solar powered lights. The village uses portapotties. This place is run more like a traditional shelter but with
semiprivate sleeping quarters. Residents are required to leave
the sheds at 8:00 am and not return until 5:00 or 6:00 pm. No
alcohol or drugs are permitted. Residents are allowed to have
pets, but the housing is considered temporary, not long-term.

River Haven (Ventura, California)

Harbor Boulevard near Olivas Park Drive, Ventura, CA. Established in 2009. River Haven has 19 modular U Domes that can
house 25 people. It is funded and operated by the Turning Point
Foundation and is part of Ventura Countys 10-year plan to end
homelessness. River Haven is an outgrowth of a previous tent
community that had existed since 2004. U Domes are sold by the
World Shelters company. The U Dome 200 has a diameter of 16
feet and interior of 200 square feet. They sell for $2,495 each.

9301 Hog Eye Road, Austin, TX 78724. A 27-acre project

built in 2014 by the Mobile Loaves and Fishes outreach ministry.
It houses, long-term, more than 200 homeless persons. It consists
of 125 units which are a mix of tiny houses (144 to 180 sq feet)
and 12 X 12 canvas-sided cottages. The houses rent for $210 a
month, the canvas cottages for $180. Both have electricity. There
are also lots for 100 RVs and 12 sites to pitch teepees. There are
outdoor kitchens and communal shower, bathroom, and laundry
facilities. The village includes a community garden, bee hive,
and a large chicken coop. The property includes a machine and
woodworking shop. There is on-site medical and hospice care.

Tiny house village (Seattle,

Washington)
2116 East Union Street, Seattle, Washington, 98122. Opened
in January 2016. It contains 14 tiny houses. They are 8 X 12
feet and insulated. It was created by the Low Income Housing
Institute in coordination with the city of Seattle and the Nickelsville homeless camp. The move was prompted by the death
of 45 homeless people in Seattle streets in 2015. The mayor
declared a state of emergency on homelessness in November
2015. Several other homeless camps and parking lots for the
homeless have been officially approved by the city government.

The little houses have electricity and oil heat. Bathrooms with flush
toilets and showers with hot and cold water are in a central building.
Each house can sleep up to a family of three, so the village can house
42 people at maximum. Drugs and alcohol are prohibited but the residents will run the community. Residents must pay a $90 per month
utility fee. Case management will be provided. Each house costs
about $2,200 to build paid for by donations and built by volunteers.
Residents are allowed to stay until they find permanent housing.

While the Sonoma County, Callifornia, Board of Supervisors

is debating where to set up their two-year trial homeless
tiny house village, county capital Santa Rosa has converted
the Palms Inn motel into single-room occupany apartments
for the homeless, veterans, and the elderly.

Santa Rosa, California

Infinity Village (Nashville, Tennesee)

146 Green Street, Nashville, Tennessee 37210 (the Green
Street Church of Christ). Opened in August 2015. So far, there are
6 tiny houses, each 5-by-12 and 60 square feet. This is a project
of Pastor Jeff Obafemi Carr, who built the houses with the help of
11 volunteers. He has thus far raised $67,000 with a GoFundMe
appeal. The little houses are on wheels, have no bathroom or
kitchen, but do have electricity, to power a mini fridge and air
conditioning. They contain a pull-down bed. Pastor Carr plans
to build 19 more. The houses cost about $7,000 each. Residents
use bathrooms in the church, and shower outside with a hose.

In December the Sonoma County, California, Board of Supervisors allocated $75,000 to explore locations to begin a two-year
pilot project by constructing 8 to 12 tiny houses for the homeless. If successful they said they were considering expanding the
project to between 40 and 70 such houses and possibly opening
additional tiny house villages. They began a review of six potential sites in Santa Rosa, the countys largest city. In its January
3, 2016, issue the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported that the
county Board of Supervisors had settled on a 10,000-square-foot
lot at Paulin Drive and Fiscal Drive, northwest of the intersection
of Mendocino Avenue and Chanate Road. The newspaper wrote:
Supervisor Shirlee Zane, who is spearheading the project, argued
that the shelters can help boost the local housing stock faster than
other affordable housing developments and provide much-needed
units for homeless people in a time of crisis. We have a dire supplyand-demand problem, Zane said. Rents are going up ... threatening
not only homeless people who want to get into housing, but people
who are just one paycheck away from becoming homeless. Sonoma
has over 3,000 homeless, with 2,000 of them sleeping outside.n

Current Problem Locations

2509 S Raymond Ave, LA 90007

This small house has for some years
collected junk, derelict motorcycles, and
inoperable vehicles around it. In 2009 Building and Safety had the owner remove several
inoperable vehicles. We filed a complaint to
Building and Safety, July 13, 2015, for storage of boxes of liquid on the porch and on
the north side of the house. From recent pho-

tos we can now see that they are 35 pound

containers of canola oil for commercial deep
fryers. It was assigned to Inspector Antonio
Monsisvais (323) 789-2786 (since transferred to the Electrical Section). It remained
listed as Under Investigation as of March
26, 2016. Inspector Monsisvais cited the
property for Excessive or overgrown veg-

etation on the premises and Open storage

within the required yards. The order had
a required compliance date of 9/19/2015.
We are afraid that since there is no current
inspector assigned to the case that it will, as
many other such cases, go on being listed as
"under investigation" for years to come.n

2921 S La Salle
Avenue, LA 90018
This abandoned house has been on our
reports since January 2010, when we filed
a Building and Safety complaint. It has
been vacant and a local nuisance far longer
than that. The owner, Doris Crader, moved
to Salinas, California, in 1975. She died in
2009 without a will, leaving the house on La
Salle Avenue ownerless. It has accumulated
trash and transients ever since. In February
2015 we succeeded in getting Building
and Safety to clean the yard and place a

construction fence around the property.

In April 2015 after a long search we located Doris Craders son. Originally named
Brian Crader, he had adoped his mothers
married name of Clayton and changed
the spelling of his first name to Brion.
Mr. Clayton informed Deputy City Attorney Alvan Arzu that he intended to open
a probate case to gain title to the vacant

house. During the summer of 2015 Building and Safety agreed to give Mr. Clayton
keys to the citys chain link fence, and he
has visited the property a number of times
since then, but online records still list Doris
Crader as the owner. Now, about a year later,
Mr. Clayton has not claimed the house. It
may be time for him to either move ahead
with his plan or for the city to auction

the house to recover its lien for cleaning,

boarding, and fencing the property. This
would be a kindness to the neighborhood.
Sixty-nine neighbors have signed a
petition to City Council District 8 councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson
asking that the city take some more decided action to see the house not remain empty in its present condition.n

Long Vacant Burger Stand at 4319 S Hoover Street, LA 90037

This 720-square-foot food service stand,
built in 1950, at the corner of Hoover
Street and 43rd Place in South Los Angeles, has stood vacant for many years, a
blight magnet attracting illegal dumpers
and homeless campers. It has been on our
reports since October 2013 and it has been
under an abate order from Building and
Safety since August 2014. Illegal swap
meets are often held on the Hoover side
using the fence to hang clothing for sale.
The place is owned by 82-year-old
retired attorney Harold W. Dickens. In addition to the abandoned food stand, online
agencies report that Mr. Dickens has 3 other
properties: an apartment at 1245 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd., #101, LA 90037, a twobedroom house at 3842 S Hobart Blvd., LA
90062, and a three-bedroom house at 14905
S. White Avenue in Compton. His son has
told us that he only keeps the burger stand as
a tax write-off, ignoring the perpetual grief
it inflicts on the surrounding neighborhood.
The layout of the property would seem
to make it too difficult to open the food
stand. It is surrounded by a tall wrought
iron fence keeping customers away from

the service window, and if the fence

was removed the large empty lot would
make it even more attractive to transients
for night camping. It would be most effectively used to build something new
that used the whole of the large space.
Mr. Dickens says he is unwilling to sell.
The Building and Safety website gives
the following code violation information:
The building or premises is Substandard
due to inadequate sanitation caused by general dilapidation or improper maintenance of
the building as required by Section 91.8104.
The premises are Substandard due
to an accumulation of weeds, vegetation,
junk, dead organic matter, debris, garbage,
offal, rat harborages, stagnant water, combustible materials and similar materials or
conditions. The inspector is Jeffrey Corpuz,
213-252-3946. In our most recent visit, on
March 16, we saw what looks like homeless gear stashed behind the burger stand.n

What appears to be homeless gear on

the burger stand property on
March 16, 2016.

Homeless Locations and Issues

Alley between 10 Fwy and 20th St, east of Normandie

This alley is just north of the 10 Freeway and runs east from
Normandie to Mariposa. The camp in the photo on the left is at the
west end of the alley. We first observed it in December 2013, and
reported it to LA Homeless Services Authority. The camp at right

appeared in September 2014 at the east end of the alley. The man
at the east end says he has applications in for housing but they
have not come through. Both camps still there on 3-14-2016.n

Hoover Street under the 10 Freeway

NEW. This camp had been here for several months, then in February was cleared by Sanitation workers. The occupant
simply moved his stuff to the next block to the north. By March 12 he had carted it all back under the freeway overpass.n

10

Hoover Street at 10 Freeway Offramp

Washington Blvd. at Bonsallo Avenue

NEW. This homeless material first seen March 12, 2016, on

the west side of Hoover near the 10 Freeway eastbound offramp.n

NEW. Both sides of Washington Blvd. as it passes under

the 10 Freeway have had large and small homeless camps that
come and go. Clear for several months, this camp on the west
side of Washington at Bonsallo first seen March 12, 2016.n

Cal Trans Bunker, eastbound off-ramp of the 10 Freeway at Vermont Ave.

Homeless people have been living in this Cal Trans bunker since sometime early in 2014. Until September
2015 one thin, gray-haired Caucasian man was living here. Then a young Latino couple moved in. In our February 13, 2016 photo (left above) there were blankets hanging as evidence of occupancy. In visit on March 12 there
was no visible sign of someone living there. We will check again in April but the bunker may have been vacated.n

11

10 Freeway onramp siding at

Vermont Ave.
NEW. Camp up against 10 Freeway eastbound onramp at Vermont
Avenue, March 12, 2016. There had
been a camp here in September 2015,
but it was gone in mid-October.n

1655 W. Adams Blvd, LA 90007

In March 2014 one RV and two travel trailers were moved onto
this mostly empty lot (a small carriage house exists in the back). The
owner says they have been occupied by three mentally ill veterans.
In November 2015 it was raised to two travel trailers and two RVs,
plus a travel trailer in the far back not visible in this photo that predates the current four vehicles. In view of March 14 one of the travel
trailers is gone but the foreground is filled with stored more stored
cars than before. Building and Safety has a case against the property
for using it as a place to live, but very reasonably is not pursuing it
and we think everyone concerned understands that it is better that
these men have their mobile homes than to be out on the streets.

Harvard Blvd. just south of

Adams Blvd.
This camp is by a man named Chris. He was living on the
sidewalk next to a strip mall just north of Adams Blvd. on Hobart
Blvd. from sometime in 2013 to July 2015, up against a barricade while a new building was under construction. When the
building was finished he moved across Adams and one block to
the east. We have had one complaint about him from the Empowerment Congress North Area Neighborhood Development
Council. His camp was much larger in November, was cleared,
and now has been mostly rebuilt. This photo, March 14, 2016.n

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E a s t b o u n d o f f - r a m p o f t h e 1 0 F r e e w a y a t We s t e r n Av e n u e
We first included this camp in our May 2015 report. The entrance from the dirt path running left from the freeway
is wedged between the wall of shrubbery, which stretches west along the freeway margin, and a wrought iron fence
covered with ivy that separates the Cal Trans property from Franks Auto Center at 2137 S. Western. We think there
are about three men living there, who panhandle cars as they exit the freeway. This photo from a visit of 3-16-2016.n

Alley west of Normandie Ave. between 37th Place and 37th Drive
This one-man homeless camp was set up in May 2015. Kenneth
lives here with his two dogs. His aunt and uncle live on the other
side of the fence he is camped against. Animal Services thought
one of his dogs, a big brindle lab mix, was too aggressive, so Ken-

neth this month took the dog and skateboarded three miles to the
South Los Angeles Animal Shelter to have the dog neutered. I met
the dog several times before that and he is perfectly friendly. Kenneth would like to get real housing. This photo 3-14-2016. LEn

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Homeless at Crenshaw Blvd. where it runs over the 10 Freeway

There are currently a small number of homeless men scattered around the on and offramps of the 10 Freeway on both sides of the Crenshaw Blvd. bridge. Going clockwise from the top left:
(1) East bound offramp at the southwest end of the bridge. (2) The long-standing camp at the south end under the Crenshaw
bridge. (3) The fanciful science fiction car at the west bound onramp on the west side of Crenshaw. He says he has been reported
to the police by motorists who though his car, built from scrap, contained a missile launcher. (4) NEW. The two shopping carts
are about 100 yards along the westbound freeway onramp at the north end of the bridge. They may belong to the fellow who
owns the sci fi car. (5) Northeast side of the bridge where westbound cars exit the freeway. The man in the white shirt and cap
appears to live on the freeway margin there and regularly panhandles from cars waiting for the light. Photos taken 3-16-2016.n

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Alley West of Menlo Ave.

between 43rd Street and 43rd Place
This half-block-long alley running west from Menlo
Ave. hides a homeless camp. The alley ends at the west
in a north south alley that blocks it from continuing to the
next street, Vermont Avenue. We first noticed it on May
17, 2015. This photo is from a visit on March 16, 2016.n

Vermont Ave at 40th Place

Camp just off sidewalk in block south of Martin Luther King
Jr Blvd., 3-16-2016. In our report first in January 2016.n

Alley running south from Jefferson just east

of Crenshaw
There had been four or five homeless men living in this alley in 2014, then one died and the camp dispersed. One man
set up a camp in May 2015. In a July 14 site visit a man and
a woman were camping in the alley. Since February there
seem to be three people living here. Photo of 3-14-2016.n

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39th Street, just east of Flower Street, under Harbor Freeway Bridge
Currently the most extensive set of camps in Southwest LAPDs territory, followed by the camps on the
42nd Street Bridge over the Harbor Freeway just to the south. First in our report for June 2015. These photos are from 3-16-2016. The top photo is the south side of 39th Street, just east of Flower. The next below is the
same side one block east, just after a freeway offramp. The bottom photo is the north side just at Flower Street.n

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40th Place at Flower Street, LA 90037

The tent in the photo was part of a long string of camps in a narrow
walkway running north from 40 Place and Flower street, between a
MacDonalds and the Harbor Freeway, All but this one were cleared
in December 2015. The other campers relocated to the west side of
Flower Street just south of 40th Place (see photos below on this page).n

Flower Street south of 40th Place

Camps on sidewalk just south of 40th Place on west side of Flower

S t r e e t , a c r o s s f r o m t h e 11 0 F r e e w a y. P h o t o : M a r c h 11 , 2 0 1 6 .

This is a short alley running westward from Flower Street just south of 40th Place. In mid-January
it was blocked at the sidewalk line by one large tent, at that time the only camp there. On February
12 we found the alley filled with camps, and the barricade at the sidewalk line was more formal, with
a large table braced on its side to limit entrance to the alley. Still blockaded on March 11, 2016.n

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42nd Street Bridge over Harbor Freeway, south Side

March 11, 2016. This is the largest collection of camps on that sidewalk in several years. The location hit this size in February.n

43rd Street Bridge over Harbor Freeway

Flower Street north of 43rd Street
Photo 3-11-2016.n

Bus stop on south side of Jefferson Blvd., just

east of Crenshaw
Homeless people spend long periods or camp on this bus bench
in front of the ARCO gas station on the southeast corner of Jefferson and Crenshaw Boulevards. This photo is from 3-14-2016.n

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north Side
Photo: 3-11-2016.n

1749 W Martin Luther King Jr Blvd.

NEW. LAPD Senior Lead Officer Pierre Olega tells us that the trash on the sidewalk
and the shopping cart inside the gate of the court at right, at 1749 W. Martin Luther King Jr.
Blvd., belong to a homeless woman. She lives in part on the sidewalk in front of the court,
and sometimes inside the gate, where her shopping cart is in this photo of March 16, 2016.n

Alley between Browning Blvd. and

Leighton Ave. west of Western Ave.
NEW. LAPD Senior Lead Officer Pierre Olega on March
8 took me to meet Roy P., an older man who is currently
living in this alley. Roy is a talented artist. He says he is not
homeless but is a citizen of the earth. The owner of the restaurant against which he is camped had just held a cleanup in
which all of Roys paints and art materials had been thrown
out. This photo is from my retun visit on March 16.  LEn

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Leimert Plaza Park, LA 90008

Leimert Plaza Park, a central feature of the Leimert Park neighborhood, has been overwhelmed by homeless campers. The small park is bounded by 43rd Place on the north, Vernon Avenue on the south, Crenshaw Blvd.
on the west, and Leimert Blvd. on the east. The homeless originally congregated at the west end of the park, but
by November 2015 had taken over virtually the whole of the place with tents, sleeping bags, blankets, and cooking pots. In late January or early February there was a city cleanup that seized all the many tents and home-made
shelters. Since mid-February the only camps are at the west end of the park. This photo is from March 14.n

4501 W Martin Luther King Jr.

Blvd.
This gear belongs to homeless man
David Odom. We visited the location first
on March 19, 2015, but had been told about
it by LAPD officers some months earlier.
Odom keeps his belongings on an island for
the MTA buses. Photo as of 3-16-2015. n

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