Squatters ousted from old studios

Los Angeles police have discovered that the shuttered Channel 13 studios on La Brea Avenue in Hollywood had become a haven for squatters.

Officers found squalid conditions inside the landmark building, including discarded hypodermic needles, piles of trash, makeshift bedding in office cubicles and human filth on the floors and walls.

“I was disgusted. There was literally a hill of trash 3 feet high and 20 feet wide in the middle of the main office,” said Arthur Gallegos, the Los Angeles Police Department’s senior lead officer for the area. “They had water and electricity. The offices were like hotel rooms, including a television and a clothing dresser. They put pornography up on the wall.”

Police have spent the last few weeks evicting more than a dozen squatters.

Peter Nichols, founder of Melrose Action Neighborhood Watch, said the situation at the studios represents a larger problem for the area, especially amid the recession.

“Police have discovered encampments on roofs of businesses, in crawl spaces under homes, in the yards of foreclosed or unoccupied homes or apartments, and behind garages on homeowners’ properties,” Nichols said. “It should be noted that in almost all these cases, it hasn’t been people seeking shelter; it’s people doing drugs, illegal sex acts or hiding stolen contraband.”

Gallegos said that in many of his contacts with homeless people in the area, he has found that a high percentage have outstanding warrants or arrest histories. Several of the transients who occupied the former KCOP-TV building had arrest and prison records.

Police believe they have evicted all the squatters, and property managers have since pruned trees, installed barbed wire on top of fencing, stepped up private security patrols and painted over graffiti. KCOP-TV moved its offices to West Los Angeles in 2003, two years after it was bought by Fox.

Police and residents say residential and commercial properties vacant because of the recession are proving a tempting target for transients. The stretch of La Brea north of Melrose Avenue was once home to numerous entertainment industry offices but has fallen on hard times.

Transients are already drawn to the area by services that include free food, medical care and a needle exchange.

“There is no reason for them to leave,” Gallegos said.

Don Winet, owner of the Village Idiot Tavern on Melrose, said he found a man homesteading on the roof of his business who had tapped into the electrical grid to power his toaster. But he also thinks that claims about transients and crime are overstated and that most of the homeless are simply down on their luck. “I’ve been here 30 years and I haven’t seen a change,” he said, adding that fears have more to do with appearance than reality.

Joel Roberts, executive director of People Assisting the Homeless, agreed. “There’s obviously a criminal element on the streets,” he said, “but I think it’s a small percentage. Frankly those people on the streets are more vulnerable to the criminal element than someone who is housed.”

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andrew.blankstein@latimes.com