Central Los Angeles : Homeless Return to Rebuild Razed Shelters

Houston Hodges came home from work one day to find his Boyle Heights residence razed by a bulldozer.

That’s life when you’re down on your luck and living under the concrete girders of the 1st Street bridge, as Hodges and 40 homeless neighbors were until their shacks were destroyed July 19.

“They came in and they cleaned us up,” said Hodges, a 54-year-old ex-Marine who has lived under the bridge for 2 1/2 years. Now he and seven others have returned to rebuild.

Police say they disassembled the dwellings because they were built on public property where homeless people often start fires and because unsanitary conditions created a health hazard.

Police estimate that the number of transients east of the Los Angeles River’s concrete trough has doubled in the past three months. And they say burglaries by street people rolling shopping carts and complaints from local businesses have gone up with the influx.

But Hodges said he and others who live under the bridge should not be punished for being homeless. Standing near his former home, next to an overturned box of limp lettuce and a sleeping body, he had one request: “I wish they’d leave us alone, man.” . . .