Homeless Man Tells CBS2 That City Threw Out All His Possessions During 'Street Clean-Up'

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) -- Jesse is an unemployed construction worker who has been living on the streets near Lauren Canyon and the 101 Freeway.

"It's really hard out here. Especially like with the way the weather has been going lately," he told CBS2's Randy Paige.

The man we are calling Jesse has been living on the streets for six months. He agreed to speak to Paige if we didn't reveal his identity.

The weather is only one hardship.

Jesse says he's lost all his possessions because the city came along and threw everything he owned into the back of a trash truck.

They told him it was part of a "street clean-up."

Paige asked Jesse "if anyone has come to you from the city or the county to offer help, to offer job training, too offer some way to get off the street?"

Jesse said, "Nope."

He says he was at Laurel at the 101 on Wednesday when sanitation crews rousted the homeless living under an overpass and swept the sidewalk. He said the next morning the crews were back -- this time with police officers.

Jesse says, "they just took everything and threw it up on top of a garbage truck."

Everything, he was asked.

"Everything, clothes, everything," he replied.

The only explanation they gave, Jesse said, "It was a street clean-up."

The man who already had very little -- now has even less.

"I have a lot of things that I have got from family members that I will never be able to see again -- pictures and stuff like that," he said.

Elena Stern, spokesperson for the Department of Public Works, says personal belongings are tagged and a case number given to the owner so that they can be later retrieved.

She told Paige she could not explain how Jesse's possessions could have been thrown into a trash truck and just driven away.

"No, there absolutely is not a reason for that," Stern says.

His property is unlikely to be recovered as it was clearly thrown away.

Paige asked Jesse if there was anything he would like to tell Mayor Garcetti?

"If there's a way that he can come and help the homeless get jobs, help us get housing, all that I need is a helping hand," Jesse says.