With Nowhere Else to Go, 250 of Homeless Leave Campground

A voice over the loudspeaker at Los Angeles’ urban campground Friday roused the 250 homeless men and women from their last night of shelter at the “Dust Bowl Hilton.”

“Good morning,” it said in harsh, crackling tones. “I want to advise you that employees will be picking up cots, tents and blankets. . . . It is time to be on your way.”

After a little more than three months, the temporary campground at 320 S. Santa Fe Ave., which Mayor Tom Bradley called an “emergency response” to the growing numbers of homeless on the streets of Los Angeles, was shut down. In all, 2,600 had passed through its gates since it opened June 15.

The grim, dust-filled campground alongside the Los Angeles River came to a close as bulldozers, cleanup crews and a host of city officials descended on the property before 8 a.m. The water was shut off, even as some homeless campers took showers.

California Conservation Corps workers began picking up cots, and whatever personal possessions were still on them were dumped on the ground.

About 60 campers hurriedly gathered outside one trailer to make last-minute applications for general relief from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services. City officials, who announced that they would give out vouchers for short-term hotel lodging only to those rejected for welfare, gave out 29.

City officials said the balance had already received welfare, Social Security or veterans assistance. But most of the homeless themselves said they had no housing to go to. And no plans.

The Los Angeles Police Department said it plans to monitor the Skid Row area to enforce city ordinances against sleeping on sidewalks.

The night before, the campground occupants had lined up quietly in the damp air for their “last supper”: macaroni and ground beef with a slice of bread and a small salad.

Several women checked wet clothes that they had washed and hung out on campground fences, hoping they would dry by morning. Several men lay on their cots staring silently at the sky. A few watched the new fall programs on a television set.

Most Used Plastic Bags

Friday morning, prodded by constant reminders from the loudspeaker, they stuffed their belongings into suitcases or duffel bags, if they had them. Most just used plastic bags passed out by the Salvation Army, which had operated the camp for the city.

Homeless activist Ted Hayes and about 30 members of his group, Justiceville, started what Hayes called a “trek for justice,” to highlight the homeless problem. They trudged down Wilshire Boulevard, chanting “Justice! Justice!” before reaching a park near the Beverly Hills City Hall five hours later,

“The government has failed us,” he said. “If they run us out of Beverly Hills we’ll go to Malibu, Palos Verdes. We call on the religious community to support us.”

“Contingent that everything was going lawfully, we would not have a problem,” said Lt. Russ Olson of the Beverly Hills Police Department, but he added that it is illegal to be in any park in that city after 11 p.m.

Five Acres ‘Donated’

About 50 members of Love Camp, which had moved onto the campground from a settlement on Skid Row’s Towne Avenue, were tight-lipped, saying only that someone had “donated” five acres in Yucca Valley in Riverside County.

“There’s plenty of work out that way,” one of their leaders, David Bryant, said. He had been part of a team of homeless on the campground that had worked with the city during the summer. They had been successful in persuading homeless to fill 240 jobs.

He was disappointed that this effort had not led to a permanent program. “They said something permanent would come out of this,” Bryant said of city officials. Deputy Mayor Grace Davis said, however, that she is trying to find office space for Bryant’s team to continue helping the homeless find jobs.

Though the closing seemed to go calmly, tempers occasionally flared, and Hayes at one point nearly came to blows with another camper.

By early afternoon, most had left. Two mongrel dogs wandered around, abandoned, licking water from the mud puddles. Crews tore down the canopies that covered the cots and threw abandoned tents into the trash. Officials said they will finish clearing the land over the weekend.

The 12-acre property is owned by the Southern California Rapid Transit District, which has announced plans to start construction Monday for a Metro Rail yard.

Frank Ellis pushed his shopping cart, loaded with clothes, some bedding and a little food, out the main gate. He had refused to apply for welfare, so city officials had refused to give him a hotel voucher.

“Don’t worry about me.” He smiled as he headed into the street. “I’ve been doing this for a long time.”