[dropcap size=big]O[/dropcap]n a cloudy Sunday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles, Eric, a middle-aged homeless man, is busy arranging his tent and other belongings on East 7th Street near San Julian in Skid Row. He told L.A. Taco he isn’t packing up his tent and other possessions, even though his belongings potentially could be seized by the city, according to a slew of notices posted around Skid Row.
“I don’t have any ‘bulky items’ the city would want,” Eric said. “Anyways, why would the city take what little I got when there are those big tents across the street?”
Skid Row is replete with semi-permanent structures. Tents and lean-tos are common place, many structurally bolstered with thick rope and heavy blue tarps. Eric’s 4-person pump tent looked puny by comparison.
This week, city workers will begin cleaning up L.A. streets in the general vicinity of Skid Row. L.A. Sanitation posted the notices to request the area’s homeless to “Please remove all personal belongings, including bulky items.” And the note goes on to warn: If belongings are not removed “from sidewalks, alleys, parks and public access areas, [they] will be removed by the city.”