Benito Flores has parked his battered, pale yellow Dodge Ram van on the narrow street in El Sereno outside his one-bedroom duplex. It reminds him of the past and the possibility of an unwelcome future.
A retired welder, Flores lived and worked out of the van for 14 years before joining an audacious protest against homelessness in Los Angeles in spring 2020. Flores was among a dozen individuals and families who seized state-owned homes that had been left empty and rotting for decades in El Sereno after they’d been acquired for a freeway expansion that failed.
Following a public outcry and months of negotiations, Flores and the others, a group who called themselves “Reclaiming Our Homes,” were allowed to stay in the houses temporarily.
But no more.
In March, Flores received an eviction judgement against him. Now, he’s preparing for his time in state property to end as it began: defying the authorities by occupying a house the law says isn’t his. If Flores is forcibly removed from the duplex, he plans once again to sleep in his van, an outcome that would violate what he believes is the state’s responsibility to house the poor and elderly.
“To live in a van, to live in the streets is a crime,” said Flores, 70.
In recent weeks, Los Angeles County Superior Court judges have ordered Flores and two other “Reclaimers” evicted from homes owned by the California Department of Transportation. Similar cases against three additional Reclaimers are pending.
Officials with the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, which has been operating a transitional housing program in the Caltrans homes for the Reclaimers and others, say that the evictions are a last resort after providing the group with unprecedented assistance.
Most recently, the housing authority has offered buyouts for the Reclaimers to leave voluntarily. The agency has kept the deals in place even after winning in eviction court, said Tina Booth, HACLA’s director of asset management. The terms give individual Reclaimers $20,000, an additional two and a half months in the homes and help looking for a new place.
“We all know how tight the rental market is,” Booth said. “We thought it was still right to continue to offer them a settlement package.”
No dates have been set to lock out those with judgments against them.
The roots of today’s standoff were planted a half-century ago. Caltrans started acquiring hundreds of homes in El Sereno and nearby South Pasadena and Pasadena with plans to expand the 710 Freeway through the San Gabriel Valley. Decades of resistance stalled the effort and the project was killed in 2018. In the meantime, Caltrans rented the houses out and, as many deteriorated over the years, left dozens of them vacant.
In March 2020, with the assistance of activist groups, Flores and other homeless and housing-insecure Angelenos broke into empty homes in El Sereno and declared their intent to stay. An uneasy detente between the Reclaimers and the authorities followed. That fall, they reached a deal. Caltrans contracted with the housing authority and created a special, short-term lease agreement to allow the Reclaimers to pay rent, far below market rate, and remain in the homes legally for up to two years.
Since the deadline expired, the housing authority has made multiple attempts to evict the Reclaimers. Facing pressure, some left on their own. Others who took less lucrative buyout offers returned to homelessness or had caseworkers steer them to supportive housing.
The six who remain contend that the alternatives HACLA has offered would require their families to cram into smaller spaces, move far from El Sereno or accept referrals or vouchers that did not guarantee new housing. Instead, the Reclaimers have pushed for the option to buy the Caltrans homes, as the agency’s long-term tenants now have the option to do, through a land trust or other community-ownership model.
Last year, the protesters lost a civil lawsuit against Caltrans where they argued they should qualify under the purchase plan available to tenants. The ruling is under appeal. Some Reclaimers fear that if they accept the HACLA settlements and leave, they’ll be ineligible to buy homes if the decision is overturned.
“That’s my dilemma,” said Sandra Saucedo, who lost her eviction case last month.
Saucedo, 43, had been sleeping in her car before seizing a Caltrans home. The decision allowed her to reunite with her two sons, now 17 and 23, who continue to live with her in a one-bedroom duplex. The years in a home together stabilized her family, she said.
“I’ve grown so much as a person, as a woman,” Saucedo said. “This is how I feel my life should look from now on. This is where I want to be.”
If she’s forced to go, Saucedo expects her sons’ father to take in her children while she goes back to her car or moves to Texas to stay with family.
Caltrans has started selling occupied homes to tenants while the empty properties were offered to local governments and nonprofits. Last year, Caltrans agreed to sell three dozen vacant homes in El Sereno to San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity, the housing authority and others to be refurbished and converted into affordable housing for sale or rent. Caltrans plans to put a new set of empty homes out to bid this spring and ultimately intends to sell them all, agency spokesperson Eric Menjivar said.
HACLA and Caltrans are winding down their partnership for the transitional housing program. The housing authority has returned five of the two dozen properties included in the arrangement back to Caltrans and will do the same for the remaining homes as they become empty, Booth said.
Caltrans and HACLA officials said they have no basis to allow the Reclaimers to stay and must follow the processes outlined in their contracts and state law.
“We cannot work outside of the confines of what we have the authority to do,” Booth said.
Besides legal arguments surrounding the Reclaimers’ tenancies, philosophical ones remain at issue.
Many in the community have argued that the Reclaimers jumped the line ahead of other needy families who have been languishing for years on affordable housing wait lists and losing lotteries for scarce rentals. Allowing the group to stay would reward its lawbreaking.
At the same time, forcing the Reclaimers out means in practice that government agencies would be evicting low-income residents from publicly owned homes only to sell them to nonprofits that would then rent or sell them to other low-income residents months or years from now.
Many Reclaimers campaigned for City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, a tenant attorney who won election to the district representing El Sereno last year. Flores keeps a Jurado sign in his front yard and a poster of her on his door. The group has held multiple meetings with Jurado and her staff since she took office to ask for assistance.
Jurado said in an interview that her priority was ensuring that the Reclaimers were treated fairly.
“Housing is definitely what those folks need,” Jurado said. “That’s why this whole situation started in the first place, right?”
Jurado did not provide a specific position on whether the Reclaimers should be allowed to stay in the Caltrans homes, saying those discussions were between group members and the housing authority.
HACLA has requested delays to the court hearings for two other Reclaimers who have been touring apartment buildings elsewhere. A judge has heard arguments but not yet ruled in the final case.
Booth said she hoped that all the Reclaimers ultimately will accept the offers and leave without incident.
“We are committed to the very end with all folks,” she said. “If those that have gotten the rulings want to come back and continue to work with us, let us help them land on their feet. We don’t want to see the marshal come out and lock anyone out.”
At the moment, Flores doesn’t intend to change his mind, though he understands that living in his van will be harder than five years ago. He’s afraid of losing his feet from diabetes. His shins are red with sores. Even climbing into the van these days takes more effort than he would like.
But he’s sure he’s on the side of justice.
“I’m going to resist in a very strong, very creative way,” Flores said.