Time to Move On : Caltrans Plans to Wreck Pasadena Homeless Camp Publicized After Census

A Pasadena homeless camp hidden in bushes near the Ventura Freeway may be bulldozed soon by Caltrans, which learned of its existence during a highly publicized census recount of the city’s homeless last month.

Homeless activists say Pasadena city and police officials were aware of the camp and agreed to leave it undisturbed. But two days after publication of stories and photos detailing the Sept. 23 survey, Caltrans workers showed up and told the five men living there to leave.

The men, who have lived for a year within 10 feet of a freeway on-ramp, cooperated with the census takers last month.

“A lot of the guys, they have all their stuff, and where are they going to go?” asked Michael McCabe, a homeless artist.

The Caltrans workers “drove up in a truck and said: ‘We’re going to come in here and bulldoze. You can’t expect to get mentioned in the paper and still stay here,’ ” McCabe said.

A Caltrans spokesman said the planned destruction of the Pasadena camp is not part of a crackdown by the agency, which he said routinely evicts freeway-area squatters for safety reasons. The homeless, he said, are given warning and ample time to move their belongings before crews destroy an encampment.

Joe Colletti, co-chairman of Pasadena’s Housing and Homeless Network, said he did not know that the publicity would lead to the squatters’ eviction.

“We didn’t even think of that,” Colletti said this week, “but I think they’re being booted because they were photographed.”

Union Station, a Pasadena homeless shelter, has offered to provide temporary housing for the evicted men. But McCabe said most are loners who do not feel comfortable in crowded shelters where some residents struggle with substance abuse or psychological problems.

Meanwhile, Caltrans said the men have to move soon.

“We have a concern for homeless people. We realize it’s a pitiful situation,” spokeswoman Margie Tiritilli said. “On the other hand, if they’re living on the freeway, and they’re cooking, it’s dangerous. It could start fires. It’s not healthy for them to live there anyway.”

Late this week, the men packed sleeping bags, cooking utensils, two pet cats, a makeshift art studio and a small library that included a Thomas Wolfe biography, science fiction novels and copies of Architectural Digest.

The homeless included Rex Math, a 55-year-old with a flowing gray beard, who said that six years ago he walked a bike loaded with his possessions from Minneapolis to Los Angeles.

Math says he dropped out of mainstream life 10 years ago, when he lost his job making concrete blocks. Math, who said he receives no government assistance, camps in the Arroyo Seco, eats food scavenged from trash bins and crawls under a plastic tarp when it rains.

Amid the endless roar of freeway traffic, Math reclines on a mattress throughout the day, reading, painting or playing with his cat, Clio, who he said keeps away tree rats that would devour the food cache. Math says he holds no animosity toward Caltrans.

“Oh, it’s their policy,” he said after some reflection. He plans to “go on the road” after the eviction.

Homeless activists say it was to get help for people such as McCabe and Math that Pasadena staged the census recount. The 1990 U.S. Census found 234 homeless people in the city, but officials say there are hundreds more. A final tally is expected next month.