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Homeless Again : HUD Officials Take Back Duplex Occupied by Protesters

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Homeless protesters who illegally took over a vacant government-owned duplex in the Pico-Union district last week were forced to clear out Monday, under the threat of prosecution for trespassing.

Shortly before 3 p.m., officials of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, assisted by several Los Angeles police officers, removed one squatter and boarded up the West 17th Place property where four homeless people had been living. Officials threatened to arrest anyone who tried to re-enter the building.

The squatters and several advocates for the homeless took over the Los Angeles property May 2 as part of a statewide effort to force the federal government to turn over abandoned U.S.-owned buildings to the homeless.

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Linda Armstrong, the only person in the duplex when HUD officials arrived, agreed to leave without incident. She packed two canvas bags with clothes and food--items donated during her weeklong stay in the run-down duplex--and quietly walked out into the afternoon sun.

The other homeless people who had been staying at the duplex will have to make arrangements with HUD to get their belongs, including blankets and several couches, officials said.

“They’ll throw us out, yet this building will stand vacant,” Armstrong said. “It’s not fair.”

In all, nearly a dozen properties from Long Beach to San Francisco were seized in an effort organized by the California Homeless Network.

Charles Ming, area coordinator of HUD’s Los Angeles office, said he tried to persuade the homeless people last week to leave the property and apply for government housing through normal HUD channels. When the squatters ignored his request, he said he had no choice but to evict them.

“What they did was illegal,” Ming said.

Elsewhere, HUD officials and Long Beach police on Monday evicted several squatters from two houses taken over in that city. The occupants left without incident.

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Rob Leonard, a network member and organizer of the Los Angeles break-in, said homeless activists hope the protest will prompt discussion with federal officials on the future use of vacant properties.

“We have a strong moral position,” Leonard said. “Although it is technically an illegal squat, HUD has the authority to make some kind of arrangement with us. . . . Instead they have thrown people onto the streets.”

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