A homeless man built an impressive treehouse to serve as his temporary abode, only to have it ruthlessly torn down by California state officials. Citizens online have condemned the officials’ actions, saying they could’ve handled the situation better.
Erick, who has been homeless for about 10 years, prides himself on making tree houses out of scraps found on the street in South Central Los Angeles. He recently went viral on TikTok when a recording of his expansive treehouse was posted on the platform. The three-story treehouse featured an enclosed bedroom, a zip line, and a mezzanine.
Following Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent crackdown on homeless camps in L.A., officials stormed Erick’s makeshift home and tore it down.
When speaking to The Post about the loss of his treehouse, the 34-year-old man said that he wasn’t surprised. “It was gonna happen eventually. I knew they were gonna take it,” he stated.
Erick shared that he prefers to stay in treetops because they keep him safe from thieves and dangers that are more likely to happen when he’s down on the street. He revealed that he enjoys building the makeshift encampments because they keep him busy when he’s bored.
He also stated that he’d rather stay in his treehouse than in city shelters because they make him feel unsafe. “…This just works for me. You gotta do whatever you do because it works for you,” he added.
While the L.A. man took the loss of his treehouse in good faith, social media users online didn’t. One user slammed officials for leaving the homeless man without a shelter over his head. “Instead of kick him out of the tree, why [didn’t] they find him a place? What is this world come to?” the user wrote.
“Do American authorities do nothing else but destroy people’s homes, livelihoods, and tear families apart?” another user lamented.
One person penned, “Wow, in that amount of time you think employment could have been found.” Another added, “All that effort to test his stuff down that could have been used to help relocate him…”
One user somewhat defended the officials, writing, “The ingenuity is impressive, but at the end of the day, he’s using resources he isn’t paying for and residing in space that is owned by others.”
Regardless of the situation, Erick is ready to start again. He already has plans in place to start building a new treetop mansion, which will be his fourth in his 10 years of being homeless.
For his new makeshift home, the 34-year-old plans to add a fire pole, trampoline net, and camouflaged walls to make it harder to spot. He also intends to add an “eject-o-seat” to serve as a secret escape hatch.
