When the city of Los Angeles towed away Elizabeth’s 1998 Ford Windstar, they took away her livelihood and her home.
While in the hospital receiving injections in her knee for severe pain due to arthritis, her van was towed and impounded by the Los Angeles Police Department during a city cleanup of the Westlake encampment where she parked due to expired registration tags.
As a street vendor, she had over $500 worth of inventory inside the van.
“I was sick from the sadness, I became depressed. My daughter told me to stop crying,” Elizabeth said. The LA Local is not publishing Elizabeth’s full name due to her immigration status.
Elizabeth isn’t alone.
Her van was one of six vehicles towed in spite of a verbal agreement between community advocates and officials that was meant to protect a handful of vehicles at the encampment, according to Ayla Dvoretsky from the advocacy group Ktown For All.
An LAPD official denied knowledge of any agreement, and a spokesperson for Council District 1 said their office doesn’t control who gets towed.
The city of Los Angeles has increased cleanups in Westlake due to the growing unhoused population. Neighboring areas say they are starting to see more unhoused around their streets.
Faced with fees and impound charges as high as $3,600, Elizabeth and the other people who thought their vehicles were safe faced not just an inconvenience, but the loss of everything they owned.
Elizabeth had parked at 10th Street and Park View in Westlake for several months. The day she returned from the hospital appointment, her van was gone, and an LAPD officer said there was nothing he could do. He simply gave her the tow slip and explained where she could retrieve her vehicle.
Multiple vehicles were towed for having expired tags during the May 21 city clean up and some additional vehicles were towed in the following days, according to LAPD Capt. Ben Fernandes. In total, six vehicles were removed from the encampment.
Community advocates had reached an agreement with city officials about protecting certain vehicles ahead of the sanitation sweep, according to community advocates who conduct outreach with the unhoused community.
The agreement was between the nonprofit Ktown For All, a liaison from the Council District 1, the CARE+ team with LA Sanitation and Environment and the LAPD, according to Dvoretsky.
None of the other agencies confirmed the agreement.
“We have no agreement with anyone regarding impounding vehicles during the cleanups,” Fernandes with the LAPD said.
Another person who lived near the encampment is Leticia, who requested anonymity for privacy concerns. She moved her truck on the day of the cleanup, making sure it wasn’t in the way of the sanitation cleanup.
On the following day, her vehicle was still impounded by the city.
Ignacio Torres had parked his RV in the neighborhood for almost a year before it was impounded. He said an LAPD officer had told him during the cleanup that it was fine where it was.
“But on Saturday they came and took the RV,” Torres said.
(Angelo Claure/The LA Local)
Council District 1 said CARE+ operations are a last resort tool that comes after outreach teams have offered people services and chances to voluntarily comply with health, safety and accessibility concerns.
Naomi Roochnik, spokesperson for Council District 1 said, “We communicated in advance about the scheduled CARE+ operation due to documented public health and [Americans with Disabilities Act] concerns at the site. Any separate enforcement actions taken by other departments were not directed or controlled by our office. We do not determine which vehicles are cited or towed.”
LAPD did not provide any additional information about the impounded vehicles, aside from noting the expired registrations. LA Sanitation and Environment did not respond to requests for comment about the impounded vehicles.
Less than a year ago, Elizabeth’s husband died from cancer and she’s struggled since then, living in her van.
Her vending business has declined since the ongoing immigration raids throughout the surrounding neighborhoods and she hasn’t been able to save up enough money to pay off the vehicle tags. Due to her immigration status, she’s concerned about the risks of using her name for the paperwork.
According to the impound data available on the city’s website, the tow yard storage costs and other fees to retrieve her Windstar added up to over $3,600.
Elizabeth hoped to retrieve her inventory from her car, but in order to retrieve the items, her name had to be on either the registration forms or the certificate of title.
Her name was on neither. The previous owner’s name was on all the documents and according to Elizabeth, he refused to help her change the title.
On July 3, LAPD auctioned off her van and everything inside for $475.
“They left me with nothing. I have to start again from zero,” Elizabeth said.
The area around 10th and Park View includes many unhoused people, some living in encampments, others in their vehicles.
The LAPD has repeatedly labeled the area a prior safety concern in attempts to close off the area and allow sweeps to move in, according to community advocates who conduct outreach with the unhoused.
“LAPD was coming back and basically targeting the area, specifically vehicles that were not in violation during the sweep or had been explicitly noted for protection,” Dvoretzky said.
Torres and Leticia have also struggled to get back their belongings and said they can’t afford to pay the fees to get their vehicles out of impound. Torres is currently in talks with LAPD about a fingerprint option to identify himself and get access to the items inside his RV.
Leticia has been unhoused for 28 years. She lived in her truck on 10th and Park View for the last five years, and had buried her husband only two days before the LAPD towed away her truck and all her belongings.
“The police told me not to touch anything as they towed my vehicle. They were rude and didn’t even allow me to grab some clothes, all my clothes were taken away as well,” Leticia said.
Inside her vehicle are her Social Security card, the vehicle pink slip and the registration card. Almost all of the items are required to retrieve anything out of the car, according to Leticia.
Leticia’s truck is set to be auctioned off on July 10. At the very least, she hopes to save these documents since she can’t afford to save the vehicle itself.