The Region : 100 Homeless Find Shelter in Tunnels

More than 100 homeless people, driven out of Tent City II by lack of liability insurance, found shelter from Sunday’s rains in the pedestrian tunnels underneath Los Angeles Civic Center. “It’s warm,” said Robert Stein, a spokesman for the group. “But still it’s a tunnel--it’s not like home.” He said county officials unlocked restrooms in the tunnels in response to organizers’ pleas to allow the group to spend the night in the underground passageways. But Ted Hayes, founder of Justiceville, a homeless rights advocacy group, said the move to the tunnels was really no innovation. “We’ve been staying in these tunnels,” Hayes said, “for most of the last year. Most the time county security looks the other way. But now we have more than a hundred people here. I expect they’re going to make a move to kick us out soon. But there’s really no place else to go.”