Reclaiming Our Homes

In Loving Memory of Benito Flores

With deep love, respect, and admiration, we mourn the heartbreaking loss of our beloved Reclaimer, Benito Flores. Please donate towards Benito’s burial expenses, housing costs for Reclaimers, and ongoing Reclaiming Our Homes campaigns.

There are more vacant homes than people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles. Some of these vacant properties are even owned by the state. We are taking this housing back for our community.

Impacted by the housing crisis, and feeling even more urgency in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, we are reclaiming vacant houses owned by the state to fight for housing as a human right. We the Reclaimers are calling on the city and state to immediately use all vacant properties to house people. We need all levels of government to make a massive investment in public and social housing so that everyone has a home during this housing and public health crisis.

In California, a person needs to earn $32.68 an hour to afford an average two bedroom apartment. It’s an outrage that the state and city are leaving homes and property unused when so many people need housing. We are holding them accountable and demanding immediate action.

Our Stories

At this new house, everything will be different. My kids will have space to play in a yard for the first time, like the one at the house I grew up in not far from here. I want to garden, and get to know my neighbors, go for walks, and be a part of this beautiful community here in El Sereno.

Ruby Gordillo

RECLAIMER

I was born and raised in California mostly in the Los Angeles area and it saddens me to see the state in such a horrific housing crisis. I am a mother of two daughters and we have been in unstable housing for a year and a half. Not having a place of our own and having to move so much has affected us in a deeply emotional way.

Martha Escudero

Reclaimer

I had to start living in a van because I couldn’t pay the rent. I think there are a lot of us in the same situation living in the streets living in their cars. And I think we should do something, we must do something. The rent is too high and salaries too low.