Refuge becomes a scourge

For months, a sprawling homeless encampment has been a community, but neighbors have grown frustrated

- BY ANDREW KHOURI

Photographs by CARLIN STIEHL Los Angeles Times

TIM GILBERT enters a homeless encampment on a closed-off lot on Manhattan Place in Koreatown.

Forced from his residence in an old Victorian house to make way for a redevelopment, Tim Gilbert said he was wandering Koreatown in November looking for a place to live when he ducked through a hole in a fence into a vacant lot and found himself alone.

He set up camp, and as others followed suit, began to build a little community: Toward one corner of the 15,000-square-foot lot, Gilbert erected a pickleball net he said he found near Wilshire Boulevard. Behind the net, where people volley from time to time, is a small garden of tomatoes, cannabis and onions that he tends to. There are at least two barbecues, one propane, one charcoal.

"When you are kind of going through something that is a rough time, you look for ways to keep your spirits up," Gilbert said.

CANDACE Bunzy-Marquez looks at an art book inside her tent.

The encampment is one of the thousands in Los Angeles that are both ephemeral refuges from the dangers of sleeping alone and a constant frustration for the people nearby who pay rent and mortgages and want their neighborhoods clean.

The little extra pleasures on Manhattan Place make it unique - the green grass that comes with winter rains, grilling hamburgers, recreational sport.

Neighbors lodged complaints about the encampment, including concerns over fires after encampment residents appeared to have broken into a street light and attached an extension cord to receive power.

Others cited drug sales and concerns over personal safety.