© Photo: Saul GonzalezOnce they register at The Bin, the homeless are given a standard 60 gallon City of Los Angeles recycling container to store their possessions.
In the early morning hours, a crowd of people gathers outside of a nondescript building in Los Angeles' Skid Row neighborhood.
They're all homeless and all looking to find shelter, not for themselves but for their personal possessions, which they keep in everything from plastic bags to shopping carts to suitcases as they wait in the crowd. They've come to
The Bin. Operated by the L.A. homeless assistance organization Chrysalis,
it's one of only two storage facilities in Los Angeles where the city's homeless population can store their property free of charge, whether its a single day or several weeks.
© Photo: Saul GonzalezOnce the bins are packed, they’re wheeled into an enormous storage facility and placed in long rows until clients retrieve them.
"Well, we provide storage options for the homeless population," says Alex Connedy, the on-site manger for The Bin."
They don't have any stability, and they are constantly in transition with all of their property. Many times their property is l
ost and stolen because they have nowhere to keep it safe. So what we provide is an option for them,
free of charge, to come and store their personal belongings."
Those belongings that homeless people carry or wheel in are stored in
donated, 60-gallon City of Los Angeles recycling bins, just like the ones Angelinos leave curbside on trash pickup day. At The Bin,
one container issued per person. People can stop [put] whatever they want in them as long as its not drugs, firearms or illegal material. They must also make sure they can close the top of their bins completely before handing them over for storage.
Comment: What a fun way to start that summer vacation! What's included in the price of your ticket, you ask? Pokes, prods, snoops, x-rays, pat ups, pat downs, smiles for the surveillance cameras, detectors, vehicle checks, questions, sniff tests (by dogs so far), bag checks, shoe checks, ID checks, monitors and observances, health screens, facial recognition, security guards, no-fly lists, barricades, seat belts, undercover flight marshals...and much, much more! They just have to think it up. They promise to by summer. BTW, how many terrorists have they caught, not including false flag perps?