Hundreds of homeless forcibly evicted from Southern California refuge

Officials acted with the ostensible intention of removing all non-Ontario residents from the area. To that end, tent city residents were given color-coded arm bands which divided them into three categories; Ontario residents, non-residents, and those who were given a short period of time to prove residence in Ontario. Dogs and other pets were removed from the site along with motor homes and cars that were unable to start properly.

The police most likely kicked out many residents who were citizens of Ontario, but were unable to adequately prove it. The evicted residents were then bused out of the encampment, leaving personal belongings behind in many cases. Their ultimate fate remains unclear.

One volunteer interviewed by local news station KTLA 5 reported that he had conducted extensive interviews with camp residents and believed that only about 15 percent of the original 400 were not from the city of Ontario as opposed to the 50 percent actually evicted.

The encampment itself is located on a group of vacant, dust-covered house lots adjacent to the Ontario airport approximately 40 miles east of the city of Los Angeles. Begun during the summer of 2007 with a group of approximately 30 residents, the camp swelled to an estimated 400 over the course of only a few months.