Activists wield bolt cutters as poor families seize empty homes
By Liam Dillon Los Angeles Times Dec 25, 2020 Dec 25, 2020 LOS ANGELES â Weary after months of sleeping on other people's couches, Martha Escudero walked through the broken door of an empty home in Los Angeles' El Sereno neighborhood and started bringing it back to life. She fixed the garbage disposal, turned the garage into a classroom for her 11- and 8-year-old daughters and harvested squash and sweet potatoes from a vegetable garden she planted. Her homesteading, part of an organized effort by tenant activists in March, was illegal, but it worked. The Los Angeles Hou...