Jonathan, 48, a carpenter, had all his tools stolen several years ago. Then, his truck broke down, and he couldn’t get it fixed. He was living with his mother for the last few years before she moved in with his grandmother in another county. “I’m sure they would have made room for me, but I didn’t want to burden them,” he said. “And I didn’t know the area. I wanted to get back on my feet. But it’s hard.”
He stood on the sliver of sidewalk next to an entrance to the 405 freeway near LaCienega Blvd. “And here we are,” he said.
Jonathan has been homeless for about a year. “I don’t want to be on the street,” he said, adding that some people he had seen had mental health issues and others, like him, were looking for a way back into a life with a job and a home. “They want to get back working,” he said. “They want to get out of the street. It’s not ideal.”
On this day, he was moving into interim housing and helping others from the encampment cart their belongings out. He was also making plans. He took courses at two community colleges in the past, he said, and he’d love to go back. He’s interested in archaeology. But he would also like to return to carpentry. “That would be the easiest way to move myself into a normal life.”