An Ill Wind Blows : Venice Homeless Face Rains, Legal Storm

Eliot had been resting peacefully under a giant green Army tent at Venice Beach on Sunday when a sheet of rain collapsed the shelter like a punctured balloon.

Joe was in another tent at the homeless encampment when wind-whipped waves lapping against its side sent him scurrying for dry land.

“It’s a sad situation,” he said. “I don’t like living like this.”

But despite the heavy rains and vicious gusts that battered the campsite during the weekend, dozens of homeless people--including Joe and Eliot--have sworn to stay their ground.

A new Los Angeles law banning overnight sleeping on the beach took effect on Sunday, although police have said there will probably be no arrests until Tuesday because of today’s holiday.

Homeless leader Ted Hayes said that, regardless of the weather, he would maintain a vigil on the sand and wait for police to arrest him.

“We can get out of the storm. We just have to pick up and go,” Hayes said. “But we don’t want to go. That would give the government a solution to their embarrassing problem. We don’t want to let them off the hook.”

In the meantime, however, Venice’s homeless have had to brave more than the usual discomforts of life on the streets.

Frigid winds sent sand and garbage sailing through the 30-tent encampment. Clothing and blankets in the collapsed shelter were left soggy. The blustery conditions even turned away advocates for the homeless who had planned a three-hour rally Sunday to protest the new overnight sleeping ban.

Although police arrived at the beach to explain that emergency shelters had been made available, most of the homeless seemed more interested in battening down the hatches than abandoning ship.

With hammer in hand and a handkerchief protecting his face from the cold, Alex Harding, 36, was pounding wooden stakes into the ground in an effort to reinforce his battered tent.

‘Like a Monsoon’

“It was like a monsoon last night,” said Harding, who has been living at the beach for 2 1/2 weeks. “Hopefully, we can keep it together tonight.”

Paul Meares was piling sand around the base of a jumbo Army tent that was flapping in the wind like a sheet on a clothesline.

“This is like a study in human tenacity,” he said.

Van Bush, who said he was an unemployed air traffic controller, was busy raking away the garbage and flotsam that the morning’s high tides had dumped ashore.

“You swept us from the doorway into the alley,” he said. “Then you swept us from the alley to the beach. Where are you going to sweep us to next? The ocean?”

Many others, shaken from the stormy night, packed their belongings in plastic trash bags in anticipation of an emergency evacuation. Some, weary from the tempestuous night, huddled on tarps and tried to sleep.

Eliot, 47, an artist who asked that his last name not be used, said weathering the storm had left everyone apprehensive.

“It’s like you’re on this ship sailing along and you’re hoping this thing is going to stay up,” he said. “It’s devastating.”

One of the most concerned was Vernon Clay, 31, a blind man, who said he feared that another storm might strike without him being able to find his way to safety.

“But you know what’s worse than the weather being bad?” he asked. “People not caring about people.”

Most of the homeless, however, said that it was worth battling the hardships of the beach to protest a sleeping ban that they say is unfair.

“This is proof that people would rather go through this,” said Hayes, gesturing to the flapping tents, “than go through the madness on the other side of the boardwalk.”