There are probably more prominent homeless encampments in California, but the collection of tents, lean-tos and makeshift shacks along the edge of the Pasadena Freeway, perched precariously above the Arroyo Seco, tend to get your attention.
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Nearly 100 people have made their home inches from where 100,000 vehicles a day go screaming by. On the other side of the encampment: A massive cement channel, carrying nasty urban runoff.
But beginning last month, the city of Los Angeles began to move the unhoused people from the ragamuffin homesteads of the Arroyo Seco, removing them from the edge of the 110 Freeway into much more permanent housing.
The breadth and depth of the homelessness crisis in our state can’t be escaped, but nowhere drove the enormity of the problem home for me quite like this woebegone outpost for the dispossessed. I see the sad homes while driving down the freeway and riding my bike along the concrete Arroyo Seco. Clothes hang to dry on a chain link fence, next to heaps of rusting bicycles and garbage, the detritus of lives lived with downcast eyes. I see forgotten women and men splashing themselves as clean as possible with the only water at hand, the soupy runoff from the yards of more fortunate neighbors.
I saw how the authorities had tried and failed to roust the squatters more than once. They bulldozed tents and makeshift homes in 2015 and again early this year. People noticed because at least a few of the homes were prominent, and some had been surprisingly well made. With their wood siding, river rock, rain gutters and potted plants, the shelters struck one journalist as possessing almost a “riverfront appeal.”
In reality, the denizens of the Arroyo Seco told social workers they felt relatively secure there, but had earlier battled the same problems — high rents, lack of income, substance addictions and mental health challenges — that made homelessness epidemic around California.
What’s the latest plan to find housing for the Arroyo Seco denizens?
Led by Los Angeles City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, the government said it will do a better job this time around. The District 1 lawmaker secured $6 million from the state’s $1-billion-plus Encampment Resolution Funding program. The city and partner agencies, including USC’s Street Medicine team LA Global Care social services, spent months building trust with unhoused people, starting at Lacy Street Neighborhood Park, tucked into the armpit of Interstate 5 and the 110 near the south end of the Arroyo Seco.
Nearly 30 people had turned the park into an encampment that one of the residents called “sad, cold and depressing.” While street workers fed and cared for the campers, the city worked on finding a better place for them to live.
Many insisted they didn’t want to go to another homeless shelter that they felt would be unsafe, overly restrictive or too far from home. Others wanted to make sure their new place would have room for their loved ones, including pets.
Guided by Hernandez’s office, the outreach teams eventually found permanent apartments for 27 people from Lacy Park. Many of them got spots at an apartment building, with meals and supportive services, south of the Santa Monica Freeway, not far from USC. One tenant said they pay little or no rent, at least to start out.
Michael Guerra told me he had lost his job as a chef and descended into a deep depression before landing in the park. The encouragement from outreach teams and the new apartment helped restore his hope, he said.
“It’s peaceful. It’s quiet,” Guerra said. “Before, we did the best we could. But now we know we are safe and warm and not having to worry about things that might happen in the middle of the night.”
Said one homeless woman: ‘Nobody owes them nothing’
The city program is now focused on 43 other people living farther up the Arroyo Seco, into Highland Park. When I dropped in a couple months ago, one woman along that stretch told me she would be thrilled to move inside, after more than two decades living in the streets. Leora Cervantes, 53, said she had been assaulted several times in recent years. She bemoaned the trash and graffiti left by her fellow campers, empathizing with neighbors, including citizens who use a park on the other side of the storm channel.
“I don’t think it’s right what they do, what any of us do,” said Cervantes. “They think everybody owes them something and they don’t. Nobody owes them nothing.”
Previous Arroyo cleanups failed, largely because those who were rousted did not have anywhere better to go. Hernandez acknowledged that the work of bringing people inside is slow, hard and expensive. But she doesn’t see any other way.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, ‘You can’t incarcerate your way out of this,’” the councilperson said. “What we’re proving right here is that care-first models actually work. They save lives, save money, and make our community safer, and this is how we fight back against the hate and neglect, by building a city that doesn’t abandon people when they need help the most.”
Today’s top stories 
Controversy surrounds the unfinished Vietnam veterans memorial in Fountain Valley’s Mile Square Park.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Corruption looms over Vietnam War memorialStormy weather continues in SoCalTrump’s appeal to block migrants
- The Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal from the Trump administration that argues migrants have no right to seek asylum at the southern border.
- The government is seeking the right for border agents to block asylum seekers from U.S. soil and turn away their claims without a hearing.
What else is going onCommentary and opinionsThis morning’s must readsOther must readsFor your downtime 
L.A.’s annual holiday markets and craft fairs offer a chance to shop small and avoid busy malls.
(Los Angeles Times photo illustration; Photos by Christina House, Robert Gauthier, Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times; Silvia Razgova/For The Times, Courtesy of Bryan Santamaria and Christina Foste, Renegade Craft, Venice Fest, Heather Levine)
Going outStaying inA question for you: What’s one special dish your family makes for Thanksgiving?
Jose Cabanillas said, “Years ago, Russ Parsons wrote up for the Times about testing how to ‘dry brine’ a turkey for Thanksgiving like Judy Rodgers prepared the chickens at Zuni Cafe. I had to try it, and it became the family standard for the big dinner. Perfect bird. Everybody loves it. It has become the albatross around my neck, an inescapable curse that I must prepare every year. Thanks, Russ.”
Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.
And finally … your photo of the day 
Community members gather on Highland Avenue in Altadena to enjoy a block party on Oct. 26.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Today’s great photo is from Times staff photographer Jason Armond of Highland Avenue in Altadena, where neighbors are learning to rebuild through community after the Eaton fire.
Have a great day, from the Essential California team
Jim Rainey, staff reporter
Hugo Martín, assistant editor, Fast Break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
June Hsu, editorial fellow
Andrew Campa, Sunday writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
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