LOS ANGELES — Sobbing beneath a guitar strapped safely on her back, Qwin is devastated. It’s clean-up day at her encampment under the 405 freeway, and her shopping cart ended up in a garbage truck. 

“I don’t do nothing to no one and they’re going to do this sh*t to me?” Qwin said through her tears (Qwin is a pseudonym). “It makes me feel like sh*t.”

RELATED:

This is the city’s new approach to a public health crisis. Sanitation crews called CARE teams work with outreach workers from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) to clear human waste and garbage from city sidewalks. 

“This is the second time they’ve thrown all my stuff away,” the 26-year-old homeless musician said. The first time, she lost a warm sleeping bag. This time, it was stuff most of us take for granted: batteries, flashlights, clothes, and bleach. 

“Just every day stuff,” Qwin said, saying a LAHSA worker tried to talk to her while she was frantically moving her belongings. “He wasted, like, two of my minutes. I could have had a whole arm’s full of sh*t over here if he hadn’t made me stop to talk to him.”

Qwin wasn’t the only one simmering about the situation. While sanitation crews bleach the street, the encampment moves a block down Venice Boulevard to the sidewalk in front of Exclusive Motors.

The store’s owner, George Frem, is an outspoken critic of the city’s handling of the crisis.

But the city says they are trying to help, trucking away thousands of tons of garbage over the last two months. This encampment at Venice and Globe is one of 1,600 in their jurisdiction. 

Qwin finds it hard to believe anyone really cares about her.

“I don’t steal from no one. I try to do things the right way. I believe in karma,” Qwin said. 

She pulls a tarp over what she has left. With four bucks in her pocket, she sets out to beg for more. She needs cash quickly, to buy back what she lost.