4 Men Living Under Freeway Evicted : Homeless: The shelters they had built in the foliage beneath an interchange in Westwood are carted away by Caltrans. All claim to be veterans of the Vietnam War.

James Bethard said he had been living there for more than five years, perhaps as long as six.

It was an attractive home, really--a tidy little “hooch,” complete with a bunk, couch, bookcases and a stove, surrounded by about an acre of grass, shrubbery and trees.

The problem was that this idyllic acre is part of the interchange between the San Diego Freeway and Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood. Vehicles come thundering down the freeway about 10 feet above the shaded slope where Bethard and three other men--all said to be Vietnam veterans--had built their tiny homes, hidden in the foliage.

Caltrans officials said the traffic posed a danger to the four men, that the men posed a danger to the traffic and that the little homes got in the way of maintenance crews. Half a dozen other “temporary” residents were adding to the problem, Caltrans said, and besides, rules are rules.

“You cannot live legally on a freeway right-of way,” said Margie Tritilli, a Caltrans spokeswoman.

Early Friday morning, a squadron of Caltrans trucks, tractors and orange-clad maintenance workers descended on the acre to begin hauling away the homes, packing up the men’s belongings for storage and generally tidying the place up.

And on their heels came several dozen reporters, photographers and camera operators, all of them summoned by veterans’ rights activists, dressed in fatigue jackets and bedecked with medals. They said the whole affair showed how little America cares about the men and women who served in Vietnam.

One of the activists, Robert Preciado, used the event as a forum to talk about MIAs and the mismanagement of the war. Another, Simba Roberts, said Caltrans was moving the men out in order to spray the place with herbicides, a contention that Caltrans denied.

Bethard, 49, said he didn’t know about any of that. All he knew was that he liked living there and now he was told he must go.

“But I guess Caltrans must do what it must do,” he said philosophically. “It’s our duty to cooperate with them in the fullest.”

Bethard took news people on a tour of the four little homes, tucked away under the shrubbery near the brow of the hill.

His was by far the grandest, featuring a wooden floor, a beamed ceiling and walls of heavy plastic sheeting that could be rolled up to admit sunlight and breezes. The others were more like elaborate campsites, but with chairs, mirrors, storage cabinets and artwork.

Bethard said he, Terry Broderick, Dan Allen and Scott Whaley used toilet and bathing facilities at the Veterans Administration complex across the street.

Everything was just fine, he said, until Caltrans took official notice of them in August and announced that they would have to leave the encampment. The land is owned by the Veterans Administration, over which Caltrans has an easement.

VA officials say that while only two of the four--Whaley and Broderick--are verified veterans of the Vietnam War, all four were offered a variety of VA rehabilitative services that include housing in dormitories, hospitals or hotels.

“We treat first and verify later,” said Kathrene Hansen, a spokeswoman for the VA.

Whaley is the only one who has has accepted VA housing, she said.

Hansen said Bethard and Allen have refused the VA offers, and as for Broderick, “we don’t know.”

Bethard said they had offered him housing, “but it was in one of those downtown hotels where they have drug and alcohol abusers, and I don’t want to be around those people. . . . “Besides, I have claustrophobia and a sleep disorder,” he said. “I’ve got to be outside. I can’t go inside.”

Allen, 50, said he has refused to go over to the VA offices to inquire about housing--or anything else, for that matter.

“I don’t want to talk to them because I think they’re the biggest bunch of asses in creation,” he said.

Broderick said he preferred to “live in the bush,” and let it go at that.

Hansen said the men apparently tried to camp in another spot on the VA property Friday afternoon, but left when told that was illegal.

“I don’t know where I’ll spend the night,” Bethard said before leaving. “I may just be standing in my shoes.”

Hidden Homes Razed Map shows where four men had been living in tiny, hidden homes they had built from discarded materials in shrubbery beside the San Diego Freeway in Westwood. Caltrans razed the structures Friday, saying they were a danger to motorists and the men who lived in them.