The thought of hundreds of homes such as the one on Sheffield Avenue sitting empty struck her as “ludicrous,” especially in a housing crisis that may become magnified amid a pandemic. “This is a bigger cause,” said 42-year-old Martha Escudero, who also moved into the house with her two children on Saturday.
In the event of any law enforcement action, Sallai said leaders will send alerts through a rapid response texting service to rally members to defend the property. City News Service reported there were two arrests in the area for burglary, but it wasn’t clear if they were related to the protest.Īrielle Sallai, an organizer with the Democratic Socialists of America Los Angeles who has been helping the Reclaimers, said a network of 50 people will be serving several-hour shifts, rotating in and out of the house throughout Saturday evening and into the morning. As of Saturday evening, the officers had not taken action to remove anyone from the property. Several activists hooked arms to create a barricade in front of the home. In recent years, the number of Caltrans-owned homes along the project’s corridor, which includes not only El Sereno but Alhambra and South Pasadena, had grown to as many as 163, according to a 2019 investigative report by Southern California News Group.įive California Highway Patrol officers arrived about an hour after the activists moved into the house. (Photo by Elizabeth Chou)Ĭaltrans officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the occupation. There were no actions taken to remove people from the house, as of late morning. “This is justice.” California Highway Patrol officers arrived at the house, but were unable to identify an organizer. “They say it is a crime to occupy these houses, but this is not a crime,” said Flores, who lives in his van. Local officials in Los Angeles across the state are now weighing eviction bans to avoid exacerbating the existing housing crisis.Īnd with thousands homeless in LA, “we are here to reclaim these homes,” said Benito Flores, who is also squatting in the house. Southern California’s housing-related worries have become more pressing, with the economy slowing amid response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. The activists demanded that “all unused and empty state, county, city and school district buildings and properties be immediately used to house the thousands of unhoused individuals and families.” They modeled themselves after Moms 4 Housing, activists who occupied a vacant home in Oakland for two months until they were forced out by law enforcement.
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But that project, first proposed in the late 1950s, faced decades of opposition and was halted in 2018.Īcross the street, two other vacant homes bore signs in their windows that read “Warning, State Property, Trespassing, Loitering Forbidden By Law.” Related Articles The homes were purchased by Caltrans in anticipation of a project to close a gap in the 710 Freeway. The house sits in a residential neighborhood where many of the properties have been vacant for years. Ruby Gordillo looks out of the window of an empty, Caltrans-owned home on Sheffield Avenue that she is planning to squat in, as an act of civil disobedience.
But for as many days as she is able to, Gordillo plans to call this El Sereno bungalow her new home. She and her three children live in a cramped, one-bedroom unit in an apartment building in the Westlake Pico-Union area, she said.
One-by-one, the activists filed up a set of front steps in an act of civil disobedience, carrying with them a small writing desk, dining chair, an ornate glass coffee table and other furniture into a two-bedroom house on Sheffield Avenue.Īmong them was 33-year-old Ruby Gordillo, who carried a small pot of flowers that she set down on the coffee table. In a protest that appeared to be a convergence of California crises, a group of housing activists on Saturday, March 14, aimed to “reclaim” vacant homes owned by Caltrans in the El Sereno community of Los Angeles.
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