Local Gov't confiscates tiny homes built for homeless people

[Mani]

There is a guy, Elvis Summers, who started a movement. He built a tiny home for a homeless lady he saw repeatedly on the streets.

He asked local authorities if he could build a structure that could follow local laws. He was told it had to be moveable every 72 hours so he built a tiny home on wheels. A place to sleep, a lockable structure to place their belongings and a spot to sleep in instead of the cold ground. He then made a video about it:



He made a gofundme account:
https://www.gofundme.com/mythpla


The video went viral. 6 million people watched it. The news picked up on it. It was an amazing feel good story. $100K poured it. Elvis got busy, started building a lot more tiny homes. Bought blankets and emergency supplies for homeless people. But more importantly started a movement. Copy cat do-gooders did the same in their respective cities. Started building tiny homes for homeless people who needed some shelter, a place to sleep, and a place to keep their belongings.

Elvis started up a website: http://www.startinghuman.org/ and began a non-profit organization.


Here is a man dedicating his time and money to a cause he believed in. Helping the homeless, the poor. He would constantly try to work with the local authorities to find a longer term solution to the problem. He took in private donations to continue his work on helping the 30,000 - 40,000 homeless in L.A. He tried to come up with a private solution.


What do you think the state eventually started to do when this man started coming up with his own efforts to make a difference? Cheer him? Applaud him? Work with him?


They began doing what they always do. Only the state can feed the homeless. Only the state can provide shelter. Only the state can take care of these problems.


Homeless main arrested for living in tiny home donated to him

http://www.10news.com/news/police-a...-tiny-house-donated-to-him-by-good-samaritans

SAN DIEGO – A group of San Diegans are outraged after building a tiny house for a homeless man only to have police arrest him for living in it.

Lisa Kogan was among those who raised money to have the tiny home built.

“What has really hit me in my heart is there's a need out here, there's a need for people to have shelter,” Kogan said.

Kogan saw a YouTube video about a man in Los Angeles who was building tiny homes for homeless people.

“I became inspired and I got my friends behind and donated money,” Kogan said. “We built it last month. It's a little house, it's moveable, it has wheels.”

Continued at link.

Denver sends 70 police officers and swat team upon group of people building tiny homes for homeless, arrests 10 people and destroys homes. (there were also police helicopters flying overhead. People trying to build a small community for homeless people were that big of a threat???)

http://denverhomelessoutloud.org/2015/10/25/tiny-homes-destroyed-by-city-10-arrested/

Last night, Saturday, Oct 24th, about 70 Denver Police Department and Denver Sheriff’s Department officers, including swat units, under orders from Mayor Michael Hancock, descended on Sustainability Park and arrested 10 community members who, along with many others, were in the process of setting up a tiny home village to be occupied and managed by houseless people. The arrests, on charges of trespassing, were followed by the destruction and removal of several tiny homes which the group had constructed for houseless community members to live in. The group, led by Denver Homeless Out Loud and composed of houseless people and supporters, had been constructing tiny homes and trying to find a location for the village for over a year. But due to zoning and code constraints they have not been able to find a legal place to put the houses.

Continued at link.



And then the guy who received hundreds of interviews and millions of views and positive publicity saw this happen this summer:

http://www.latimes.com/local/cityhall/la-me-0825-homeless-tiny-houses-20150825-story.html

The running legal and political debate at Los Angeles City Hall over how best to manage street encampments is turning to a new issue: tiny, curbside homes on wheels.

Some advocates for the homeless see the wooden, sometimes colorful single-room structures — about the size of a parking spot — as a simple and safer alternative to having the homeless sleep on the sidewalks.

The mini-houses have popped up recently around Los Angeles, with a number of them in San Pedro. But Harbor-area Councilman Joe Buscaino argues that a proliferation of the structures undercuts the appearance of neighborhoods and poses problems of public safety because the homes don't have running water or reflective markings.

"These wooden shacks are not the real estate I'm looking for in my district," he told colleagues at a committee hearing Monday.

The dispute is the latest twist in a complex and evolving legislative response to a growing homeless problem that has seen encampments spreading into more residential neighborhoods.

Earlier this year, the City Council approved two ordinances intended to make it easier for officials to break down encampments. The changes reduced from 72 to 24 hours the warning time homeless people are given before authorities seize their belongings from public spaces, including sidewalks, parks and streets and also allowed bulky items such as large tents and tables to be confiscated without notice.

At Monday's meeting, Senior Assistant City Atty. Valerie Flores said the wooden homes qualify as bulky items that can be immediately removed under the new law. She also told lawmakers the city could be sued if it allows the unpermitted homes to remain on the streets and someone is injured while staying in the structures.

Elvis Summers, who is responsible for building most of the tiny homes, said in an interview that he is trying to give the homeless the boost they need to get off the streets and that he will fight back if city officials try to confiscate the structures.

"They're stupid if they think I won't file a lawsuit of my own," he said.

Earlier this year, Summers, who lives in South Los Angeles, posted a video on YouTube showing how he constructed a tiny home for a 60-year-old homeless woman. The video drew millions of viewers and Summers has since raised more than $85,000 online to construct more such shelters for the homeless as part of a project he calls Tiny House, Huge Purpose. He said he and others have built dozens of the houses.

Council members requested more information and direction from the city attorney's office on enforcement of current laws and procedures for removing the wooden shelters.

The city typically stores confiscated belongings for 90 days so they can be reclaimed, but Flores said the homes don't qualify as personal belongings and therefore could be immediately removed and disposed of by the city. She also said the houses don't qualify as motor vehicles that can be parked in the street.

Summers said his goal isn't to fill streets with the structures, but to find a piece of property where they can be placed together. He said city officials haven't responded to repeated request to discuss his proposal.

He expressed frustration that city officials don't address plumbing or safety issues when homeless people sleep on open sidewalks. "But when I'm actually providing an emergency shelter for them, now they want to nitpick about all kinds of situations and scenarios that may or may not happen," he said. That sort of official response, he said, is "definitely not part of the solution. It's part of the problem."

Continued at link.



So when you follow the laws but do something the state doesn't like. Simple solution, the state will change the laws.


On Fedbook this week Elvis has been stating some of the new homes he created were confiscated. Homeless people with their belongings such as medicine and other basic needs were removed.

While the state is busy demolishing, arresting, and confiscating it is claiming to invest in billions of dollars to help the people they are busy arresting and taking away their shelter and belongings. If that isn't newspeak, what else can you call it?


One hand is announcing how they are helping the homeless:

http://news.yahoo.com/la-city-count...l?soc_src=mediacontentsharebuttons&soc_trk=fb


The other hand is busy destroying their temporary shelters and taking away what little they had to begin with.


Love the state. Do not go against the state. Let the state handle all problems. Do not try to help on your own. Just pay the state and let the state take care of everything.

 

[ZENemy]

But without government.....

 

[RJ Liberty]

Fuckers. This is so disturbing to read and watch.

 

[Chester Copperpot]

muh roadz

 

[idiom]

But without government.....

The American government is a strawman.

 

[goldenequity]

Related: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?489984-L-A-County-s-Private-Property-War-Nuisance-Squads
(dis thread got no luv )

 

[seapilot]

Can't have people solving societal problems on their own, why if everyone did that wonder what would happen??? Answer..something big today would become irrelevant.

 

[ZENemy]

The American government is a strawman.

I agree, there is no goverment, there are only men and women forcing us to pay them.

 

[TheTexan]

World's smallest crack house

 

[kcchiefs6465]

If they didn't perpetuate problems, what excuses would they have when robbing you?

They have an incentive for homelessness. They have built an entire industry of whores around it.

 

[RonPaulIsGreat]

Sad. Why do government employees hate humans.

 

[Peace&Freedom]

Elvis should not have left the building. That is, he should have anticipated the government would have redefined the structures (as they appear on public streets) as 'illegal homes' since the objects don't generate property tax revenue (i.e., a home isn't a home if the government doesn't get a cut). He should have at least bought some lots of private land and parked some of the structures there from the start, and not labeled them 'homes,' to see if the state would seek to seize them when they weren't in a public space.

 

[Mani]

The story is gaining a little bit of media exposure....

http://www.people.com/article/los-a...omeless-their-hearts-are-broken-elvis-summers

L.A. Orders Removal of Tiny Houses Built for the Homeless – 'Their Hearts Are Broken'

Tiny houses built for the homeless are being seized and destroyed by the city of Los Angeles as part of street cleanup efforts.

Three of the modest wooden structures, built by Los Angeles man Elvis Summers, were confiscated earlier this month and eight were marked for removal Thursday, Summers tells PEOPLE.

"It's just devastating," Summers, 38, says. "These houses are all these people had that was safe and secure."

The houses were slated for removal as part of a street cleanup requested by the office of city councilman Curren Price, a sanitation spokeswoman told the Los Angeles Times. She added that the three structures that were removed earlier this month will be destroyed.

While Summers was able to relocate the houses marked for removal, putting them in storage still left the homes' former occupants to sleep on the streets.

"The city made these people completely homeless again," he says.

Since April, Summers and a team of volunteers have built 37 tiny houses on wheels for homeless people around Los Angeles through his non-profit My Tiny House Project LA. The Seattle, Washington native started the organization after a video he created showing how he a tiny house for his homeless neighbor, 60-year-old Irene "Smokie" McGhee, went viral and sparked an outpouring of support. Summers then began fundraising to build additional houses – ultimately raising over $95,000.

Suddenly, the good deed he completed in a weekend turned in to a full-time job. Summers and his supporters began working seven days a week building homes.

"[If] I have to do it singlehandedly 'til it's done – building one tiny house at a time until there's no more homelessness – then that's what I'll do," he told PEOPLE in June.

The project was dealt its first blow from the city in August, when the Los Angeles City Council declared that structures were unsuitable for human habitation.

"The only legal use for these [structures] is for dogs," Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino said at the time, according to the San Jose Mercury News. "This is not the way we treat people who are homeless in our city."

The city has cited the structures' lack of electricity, running water and toilets as the reason for this decision. Summers says he is close to securing a piece of land where a compound of the homes could share bathroom and laundry facilities.

"The tiny houses are an essential step for right now," Summers says. "Nobody seems to be addressing the tens of thousands of people that need somewhere to go tonight."

A spokeswoman for Mayor Eric Garcetti told The Times that he is committed to getting people into permanent housing. However, that will do little for the immediate needs of those who have slept in the tiny houses for months and now face a return to sleeping on the street.

"Their hearts are broken," he continues. "Half of them are still just sitting on the concrete where their houses once stood."

I like how the councilman is basically saying the homeless are less than dogs by kicking them out of the structure. If you were a dog you could qualify to live there, but you are less than a dog you shouldn't live there.

I like how the city is basically seeing...tent ok...tent ok...chair covered by blanket ok.....WTF IS THIS!?!?! Destroy that now!!!

 

[Mani]

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-tiny-houses-seized-20160227-story.html

'Tiny houses' for the homeless seen as health and safety problem

For months, gaily painted wooden houses on South Los Angeles freeway overpasses had intrigued motorists looking up from the roads below.

The 6-by-10-foot structures, it turned out, were homes for the homeless that Elvis Summers had built and placed in several encampments around the city.

Each house, about the size of a garden shed, came with an American flag, solar-powered lights and a house number, proudly displayed next to the front door.

"It's psychology," said Summers, a self-described struggling musician who lives in South L.A. "The slightest thing you do to make them feel normal is so important. They're treated like garbage."

On Thursday, Summers raced to remove eight small houses ahead of city sanitation workers sent to impound and possibly destroy them. Summers' crusade had run into Los Angeles' intractable homelessness crisis.

After grappling for years to curb the nation's biggest street population, city officials in recent years saw homeless numbers grow, and shantytowns spread from Northeast L.A.'s arroyo to the beaches of Pacific Palisades.

Seeking to maintain order while not trampling the rights of the destitute, officials adopted a tough ordinance to sweep out camps, as well as a $2-billion homelessness plan with new shelter and housing options.

The city, however, is struggling with how to pay for the plan. In the meantime, homeless advocates discovered tiny houses.

Popularized as part of a lifestyle-downsizing movement, the bare-bones structures appealed to supporters as a simple and safe alternative to people sleeping on the sidewalk. The sweeps ordinance, however, targeted tiny houses to be seized and discarded as "bulky items."

Three of Summers' houses confiscated from a South L.A. overpass during a cleanup earlier this month are stashed in a city equipment lot while the City Council deliberates their fate, officials said. Summers hauled eight others to a Compton church lot and other locations, sending occupants back to the sidewalks.

Councilman Curren Price, who requested the cleanup, said the structures posed a serious health and safety problem.

"Police have identified firearms, drug activity going on," Price said. "A box of plywood is still a box."

Price said the homeless people had been offered alternatives, including shelter beds.

"When the city took the houses, they didn't offer housing, they straight kicked them out," Summers countered.

Summers, 38, who said he was briefly homeless in Orange County, recalls discovering tiny houses — where else? — on the Internet.

He decided to build one for a homeless woman in his neighborhood, he said. After millions viewed an online video showing how he constructed it, about $100,000 poured into his crowd-sourced fundraising site.

"My favorite was 5-year-old Finley from Australia who gave $5," Summers said.

Summers wears a Mohawk and casual hipster clothes, but his followers come from many walks of life.

"I want to stand behind this," said Eiffel Bullard, 46, a South L.A. child-care provider who drove to the overpass to lend support.

Before the homes overlooking the 110 Freeway were hauled off, residents had begun to personalize them.

The outside of June Briggs Cannon's house featured a mural of a pink convertible trailing shoes captioned "Just Married." Summers said he arranged Cannon's marriage to her longtime partner, Larry Joe.

Kenner Jackson, who lived in a tiny house with his wife, Becky, and terrier, Cowboy, expanded his homestead, planting collard greens, tomatoes and succulents in a dirt patch and setting up chairs, a table and a bench under a shade tarp.

Inside the structure, Jackson showed off a microwave, stereo system and TV — all powered by the rooftop solar panel — and a propane cooking stove. Most important, Jackson said, the front door locked.

"Security is our No. 1 priority," Jackson said.

Neighbors, however, said Summers' homes threatened their security, bringing crime, drugs, theft and prostitution into a community already struggling with gangs and violence.

"Elvis provided these people what I call an outhouse," said June Ellen Richard, who described herself as a lifelong resident of the neighborhood. "A house that looks like Snoopy."

Resident Charlie Espinosa complained that Summers had placed the houses in the neighborhood without consulting anyone. "We are insulted and we are hurt, we really are," Espinosa said.

Summers said it was unfair to blame the houses for a drug problem among the homeless that already existed.

He said he put the houses by the freeway because they would not block businesses or other residences. His ultimate goal, he added, was to get land — perhaps an empty lot next to the Compton church — for a tiny-house village.

Cities such as Seattle and Nashville are experimenting with such camps. Portland, Ore., has approved two self-governing homeless encampments that include small huts or tiny houses, said Kurt Creager, director of the Portland Housing Bureau.

"The expense to the city is minimal," just water, power and sanitation, Creager said.

Los Angeles has tried camps before. The city opened a downtown shantytown in the 1980s. Homeless activist Ted Hayes later launched a self-governing enclave called Justiceville.

It was reborn as Dome Village in 1993 in a parking lot near what is now Staples Center. Homeless people lived in geodesic domes — the tiny houses of their day. Rising land values drove the village out in 2005.

Critics say camps simply prolong homelessness.

"You can't reintegrate into society in a doghouse," said longtime homeless activist and writer Robert Chambers.

Summers said he has tried contacting officials about the village idea but none has responded.

Mayor Eric Garcetti's spokeswoman said he is focused on getting people into permanent housing.

"Unfortunately, these structures can be hazardous to the individuals living in them and to the community at large," spokeswoman Connie Llanos said in a statement.

Even as Summers hustled this week to remove the eight houses from South L.A. before the city could take them, he said he still has 26 in places "where [officials] can't find them," in communities such as Van Nuys and Inglewood.

"They keep just saying we need permanent housing, but it never happens," Summers said. "It's not a permanent solution, but nobody else gives a crap about these people."