North Hollywood Homeless Encampment Catches Fire

Shortly after noon on Saturday, July 14, flames shot some twenty five feet into the air and black smoke poured out from the train tracks at Sherman Way and Laurel Canyon, in North Hollywood, California.

There, nestled between two fences along the Union Pacific Railroad right of way, a homeless encampment exists, out of view and unknown to most of the residents of the predominately middle to low income suburb of the San Fernando Valley.

The Union Pacific Rail Line as well as Sherman Way were temporarily closed during the fire and in the clean-up process after the blaze was extinguished.

The encampment houses an unknown number of homeless people, stretching from Laurel Canyon to Whitsett Avenue along the railroad tracks, a distance of approximately one half mile. What burned appeared to be a make-shift wooden structure. Seven or eight small explosions could be heard as the fire department fought to put out the flames.

Fire officials on the scene were stunned to learn that this was not a refuse pile or storage area, but an encampment. A bulldozer arrived as the fire was exterminated to remove the charred debris; shopping carts, wood scraps, metal pieces, signs, office chairs, blankets, collections of recyclables, empty food containers, carpet scraps; anything that could be used to create a temporary shelter or be bartered for cash.

Approximately 82,000 homeless people occupy the Los Angeles area. This number is thought to be a low estimate, because many homeless people are "invisible" - they take shelter in places such as the one that burned today in North Hollywood.

The area is popular with the homeless because the double row of fencing provides some protection from the elements, and from harassment. A rash of brutal beatings inflicted on the homeless of downtown Los Angeles in 2005 briefly heightened public awareness of the plight of L.A.'s homeless and the extent of the problem, but efforts to confront the situation by local legislature have not resolved the dilemma, and often result in driving the homeless out of certain neighborhoods, without providing them with anywhere else to go.