Rest Stopped : Ticketing, Towing of Homeless in Cars at South Park Brings Complaints

On the rear bumper of Olander (Jack) Jackson’s van is a sticker that reads: “Stop the Crime. Back the Blue.”

The sticker was a gift from Jackson’s niece, a Dallas police officer, and normally he supports the message. But lately, Jackson, a homeless man who has been living in his van in South Park for the past year, has been wavering.

“I support the police everywhere as long as they do their job right,” said Jackson, a short, slender 59-year-old man with weathered skin. “But why they got to bother me when I ain’t doing nothing or bothering anybody?”

Jackson echoes the feelings of several homeless men who park their vehicles in the South Park parking lot to sleep through the night. They had grown into a small community over the past few years, with as many as 50 people spending the night in the lot at 51st Street and San Pedro Avenue in South-Central.

But the numbers have dwindled to about a dozen in recent months because since January police have been issuing parking tickets and impounding vehicles with improper registration tags. The actions have created a scare among several remaining men who say that if they lose their cars they will have to sleep on the streets in a neighborhood plagued by violence.

“These people are adamant that this is their home because they have nowhere else to go,” said Gloria Gary, a community activist who feeds as many as 200 homeless each Sunday at South Park.

In some communities, neighborhood activists work to evict homeless people. But around South Park, people defend the men who sleep in their vehicles.

Lois Medlock, president of Southeast Central Homeowners Assn. and a resident of the area for 41 years, said there are some homeless people in the park who cause trouble, but not the parking lot residents.

“We want the park clean, but we can’t kick them out without finding a place for them to go,” she said. “They don’t cause trouble. . . . South Park is a people’s park and I resent (the police and the city) for treating these people like this.”

Added Christina Martinez, head of the South Park Child Care Center: “I don’t have a problem with the homeless because they don’t bother me. They just want a place to stay.”

The limited number of beds at the nearest shelter are always filled and the shelter has no place for the men to park their vehicles.

“I have everything here in my van. I don’t need a shelter. I just need to be left alone,” Jackson said.

Arthur Davis, a 39-year-old with a disheveled Afro and a sleepy left eye, recently spent three days sleeping on the streets after his pickup was impounded. The experience was unnerving, he said.

“When you’re in your car, you’re already keeping one eye opened in case somebody comes to mess with you, but at least you’re in your car,” Davis said. “But being out on the street, just there like that, you have no protection.”

Davis has been issued two tickets, and some other men have received as many as four. The tickets carry a $30 fine that the men say they can not afford to pay. “We just hold on to (the tickets) and hope they don’t take our cars,” said one man.

John Aubuchon, a member of Our L.A. Bloc Clubs, a grass-roots organization, has been working to get the tickets erased from the men’s records but has had little success. “It’s really an impossible situation,” Aubuchon said. “The homeless don’t have the money, we can’t get representation, and the parking administrator isn’t listening.”

According to Los Angeles Municipal Code, no parking is allowed at city parks after 10:30 p.m., said Lt. David Rock, watch commander at the Newton Division.

Police were uncertain how many vehicles have been impounded at South Park.

Homeless people sleeping in the city’s parks, either in their vehicles or under some sort of makeshift shelter, is common, but it is discouraged by city officials, said Jose Bara, senior park maintenance supervisor for the city’s Recreation and Parks Department. “Most of the time we just ask them to leave,” he said.

But supporters of the South Park homeless claim that police have harassed some people in addition to ticketing their vehicles. Gary claimed that police pushed some people’s food onto the ground when they told them to leave and would not allow others to get belongings out of vehicles as they were being towed.

Rock denied those allegations. Newton Division officers are responsible for enforcing regulations against parking after dark and other violations in South Park, especially if there are complaints, he said. The Police Department and City Councilwoman Rita Walters have received complaints about violence and drug use in the park, but Rock said those problems are not related to the homeless.

Walters said she had also received complaints that the homeless were leaving the park’s bathrooms filthy and strewing trash about the area.

But workers in the park and some residents disagree.

Roger King, former recreation director at South Park, said the most serious problem has been homeless people stealing toilet paper from the bathrooms.

Barbara Foard recalled when some of the men would call “good morning” as she went for her 5:30 walk. She said she doesn’t venture to the park until afternoon now because she doesn’t feel safe with the men gone. “I’ve been thinking about buying a big dog now, because there’s no one else to look out for me anymore,” Foard said.