Inside LA’s homeless mini town as tiny houses with TVs and AC are illegally sold for $100
A small, improvised community is taking shape within Los Angeles’ massive homelessness crisis, where people living on the streets are constructing tiny wooden shelters—some equipped with televisions and air conditioning—and selling them for as little as $100.
The discovery comes only weeks after The California Post revealed a dangerous encampment along the LA River where one resident later died from an overdose. Now, another hidden pocket of street life has emerged in the middle of the city’s Fashion District.
When reporters visited the area on Tuesday, they were shown a small home built by Osvaldo, 38. The structure stood out immediately, painted bright orange, green, and yellow.
Inside, the compact shelter was surprisingly organized. It contained a bed, a television, and an air-conditioning unit. Osvaldo said he takes pride in keeping the place clean. He explained that he mops the floor at least once a day.
Before moving into the small wooden home, Osvaldo lived about a block away in a tent covered with tarps. He said that environment was chaotic and unsafe.
“There was too much fighting, drugs, everything,” he said.
Osvaldo previously spent six years homeless in Orange County before coming to Los Angeles in search of work. He survives on occasional jobs and said he works mainly so he can afford food.
In the meantime, he has begun building small shelters for other people living on the street. For roughly $100, he constructs simple wood-framed structures that provide far more protection than tents.
So far, he estimates he has built nearly ten of them.
His own shelter is the only one fully painted. Many of the others nearby are unfinished, with bare wood, partial walls, or incomplete frames. Osvaldo said he hopes to eventually paint and complete the structures so they resemble more permanent homes.
A short distance away stands one of those unfinished shelters belonging to Kathryn, 40, who says she has spent decades without stable housing.
She showed reporters the small structure she now calls home. Inside are two simple sections she describes as a bedroom and a bathroom. The space remains basic and unfinished, but she pointed to another open area and said it will eventually become a living room.
Outside Osvaldo’s brightly painted shelter, small plants grow in containers.
They are green beans.
“I planted like six or seven little beans,” he said.
The makeshift neighborhood is developing while Los Angeles continues to spend enormous sums addressing homelessness. In recent years, the city has directed more than $1 billion toward programs intended to help people leave the streets.
However, every person interviewed in the area said they had not recently been offered services. None could remember the last time they saw outreach workers from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
Earlier this week, The Post reported that one large initiative alone cost roughly $300 million and was meant to move people into housing. Yet about 40 percent of those placed through that program returned to the streets within months.
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