Homeless Man Builds Home

Government pulls it down.

"It wasn't the TV, VCR and DVD player hooked up to batteries in the drainage tunnel that had sheriff's Cpl. Troy DuGal shaking his head yesterday.

And it wasn't the homemade methamphetamine pipe or the improvised kitchen, complete with a pantry. It wasn't even the mirror over the bed.

It was what the homeless residents had built behind all that: a dam."

Having turned a storm drain into a two-bedroom apartment, they had erected a waist-high barrier of masonry and concrete to stop water from flowing through their makeshift home.

“It's really quite amazing to see what human ingenuity can come up with,” said county flood engineer Cid Tesoro.

[ Give the Homeless a drain ]

“The homeless are in a sad situation, no doubt about that, but this is a public safety hazard.”