Benito Flores parked a battered pale yellow Dodge Ram van on the narrow streets of El Sereno outside his one-bedroom duplex. It reminds him of the past and the possibilities of an unwelcome future.

A retired welder, Flores lived from the van for 14 years before joining. Bold protest against the homeless In Los Angeles in Spring 2020, Flores was one of 12 individuals and families who seized a state-owned home that had remained corrupt for decades in El Sereno after being bought out for a failed highway expansion.

Following public protests and months of negotiations, Flores and others were allowed to temporarily stay at the home by a group that called themselves “reviving our home.”

But there’s no more.

In March, Flores was ruled out against him. Now he is preparing his time with the property of the nation. If Flores is forced to remove from the duplex, he plans to sleep in the van again.

“Living in a van, living on the streets is a crime,” Flores (70) said.

In recent weeks, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has ordered Flores and two other “rikamers” who were kicked out of a home owned by the California Department of Transportation. Similar cases for three additional recovery rates are pending.

Officials from the City of Los Angeles Housing Authority run a temporary housing program for recovery in Caltrans homes.

Recently, housing authorities have offered acquisitions for regulators to voluntarily leave. The agency continues to run the transaction after winning the eviction court, said Tina Booth, Hakra’s director of asset management. This requirement will help you find a new location for $20,000 for individual recamerers and another two and a half months at a home that is two and a half months away.

“We all know how tight the rental market is,” Booth said. “We thought it was still right to continue to provide them with payment packages.”

There is no date to keep out those who have been judged against them.

The roots of today’s standoffs were planted half a century ago. The Cultlands began buying El Sereno and hundreds of homes in nearby South Pasadena and Pasadena with plans to expand the 710 highway through the San Gabriel Valley. Decades of resistance have halted efforts This project was killed in 2018. In the meantime, Caltrans had rented a house and had dozens of people vacant as many have deteriorated over the years.

In March 2020, with support from activist groups Flores and others Angelenos is homeless and unstable housing He invaded El Sereno’s empty house and declared his intention to stay. Anxious deterrent between reikamers and authorities continued. That fall they reached a deal. Caltrans has signed with the Housing Authority and has created a special short-term lease agreement that allows the reclamator to go far below the market rate and stay legally in the home for up to two years.

It has been done by housing authorities since the deadline expired. Multiple attempts to eviction Reikamer. Faced with pressure, some remain on their own. Others who have received less profitable purchases have been returned to homelessness or I have the caseworkers lead them to supportive housing..

The alternative Hacla provided is six people who claim that they will require families to cram into smaller spaces, far from El Sereno, or accept referrals and vouchers that do not guarantee a new home. Instead, the returnees are looking for the option to buy a Cartran home, like an agency. Long-term tenants have options to dothrough land trusts or other community-owned models.

Last year, protesters lost their civil lawsuit against Cartran and argued that they should qualify based on a purchase plan that tenants can use. The award is under appeal. Some recoverers fear that if they accept and leave the Hakula settlement, they will not be entitled to buy a home if the decision is reversed.

“That’s my dilemma,” said Sandra Saud, who lost her eviction last month.

Saucedo, 43, was sleeping in the car before grabbing Caltrans’s house. This decision allowed her to reunite with her two sons, now 17 and 23. The year at home together stabilized her family, she said.

“I grew up like a woman, I grew up like a woman,” Saucedo said. “This is how I feel my life is supposed to be looking at. This is where I want to be.”

If she is forced to go, Saucedo expects her son’s father to return to her car or take her child with him while he moves to Texas to be with his family.

Caltrans has begun selling occupied homes to tenants while empty properties are being offered to local governments and nonprofits. Last year, Caltrans I agreed to sell 3 dozen vacant houses El Sereno will be converted and renovated into affordable homes for sale or rent, such as San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity, housing authorities and more. Cultlands plans to place a new set of empty houses to bid this spring, and will eventually sell them all, agency spokesman Eric Menziber said.

Hacla and Caltrans are repealing their transitional housing program partnership. Housing authorities will return five of the two dozen properties included in the Cartrun deal and do the same for the rest of the homes as they are empty, Booth said.

Caltrans and Hacla officials said there is no basis for allowing the restorer to stay and must follow the process outlined in contracts and state laws.

“We cannot work outside of what we have the authority to do,” Booth said.

In addition to the legal debate surrounding tenants of the Reca Bureau, philosophical debate is in question.

Many in the community claim that the returnees have jumped the line in front of other poor families who have been struggling for years on affordable housing waiting lists. Allowing a group to stay will reward you for violations of the law.

At the same time, enforcing the Reca Bureau actually means that agencies will oust low-income residents from publicly owned homes, sell them to nonprofits, and then sell them to other low-income residents months or years later.

Many re-returns campaigned for Councillor Isabelgerad, a tenant lawyer who won the election for the district representing El Sereno last year. Flores holds Jurad’s sign in his front yard and her poster at the door. The group has held multiple meetings with Jurad and her staff, and has been appointed to help her ask for help.

In an interview, Jurad said her prioritization is to ensure that reconstructionists are treated fairly.

“Housing is definitely something that those people need,” Jurad said. “That’s why this whole situation began in the first place, right?”

Jurad did not offer any specific positions as to whether the regrator should be allowed to stay in Caltrans’s home. He said these discussions lie between group members and housing authorities.

Hacla has requested delays to court hearings for two other Rikaimers who are touring the apartment elsewhere. The judge heard the argument, but it has not yet been ruled in the final case.

Booth said he hopes that all the restorers will eventually accept the offer and leave without any issues.

“We’re committed last with all the people,” she said. “If those who have been awarded want to come back and continue working with us, let’s help them get up and land. We don’t want to keep anyone out of sight as ex-s comes out.”

Inside the van, Benito Flores lived for 14 years before seizing an empty public home in El Sereno. If he is kicked out, he will return to sleeping in the van.

(Robert Gautier/Los Angeles Times)

At this point, Flores is not going to change his mind, but he realizes that living in his van is more difficult than he was five years ago. He fears losing his leg from diabetes. His shin is a painful red. Even climbing a van these days requires more effort than he wants.

But I am sure he is on the side of justice.

“I’m going to resist in a very strong and very creative way,” Flores said.