The Eviction of Fullerton's Homeless Tent City

Yesterday I visited Fullerton's homeless tent city, a makeshift community near the old Hunt Branch Library, because I heard the police were kicking everybody out.  This news disturbed me on two levels 1.) The very fact that a community as seemingly affluent as Fullerton even has a large tent city on its periphery and 2.) The fact that the community's solution to the homeless problem is to simply displace people.  I don't claim to have the answer to this social problem, but I think the city of Fullerton should have had a more viable solution that what it did.  

I rode my bike down to the camp as people were being evacuated.  I took my video camera, and met my friend and roommate Josue there.  Josue was taking pictures.  I wanted to see this for myself, and to document it.  What I saw affected me very deeply.  As I walked along the camp, I felt like I was in a war zone or a developing country, not Orange County.  I am told that various charitable groups and foundations were there earlier, helping people pack up and offering temporary aid, but when I got there (around 5pm) none of these groups were there.  I spoke with a few of the homeless people, and the general feeling was a mixture of anger and hopelessness.  I am still in the process of editing the video footage I took, but in the meantime here are some of Josue's photographs.