LA is seizing tiny homes from the homeless
LOS ANGELES — Escalating their battle to stamp out an unprecedented spread of street encampments, city officials have begun seizing tiny houses from homeless people in South Los Angeles.
Elvis Summers, who built and donated the structures, removed seven of the gaily painted wooden houses — which come with solar-powered lights and American flags — on Wednesday and Thursday ahead of a scheduled city sweep.
Summers, an L.A. resident who says he was once homeless, had placed them within encampments on overpasses along the 110 Freeway, for homeless people to use instead of tents.
But three structures impounded earlier this month remain in a city storage lot, a Bureau of Sanitation spokeswoman said, and the city notified occupants they would be “discarded.”
“These people are beaten down so hard, you give them any opportunity to be normal, it lifts them up,” Summers said.
Councilman Curren Price, who represents the neighborhood, said the houses pose serious health and safety risks.
“I’m getting complaints from constituents who have to walk into the streets to avoid them,” Price said.
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