Crime & Safety

LAPD: Homeless Man was a Public Health Hazard (Update)

Bobby Hise was evacuated Jan. 11 from a divider on the York-Eagle Rock Boulevard crossing.

It has been nearly two weeks since Patch reported that the LAPD cleared a rectangular piece of land on the northeast corner of York Boulevard and Eagle Rock Boulevard, which had become a refuge for the homeless.

Last week, we caught up with LAPD Senior Lead Officer Craig Orange, who evacuated the tree-shaded divider where the two boulevards meet at Alumni Avenue.

Who is Bobby Hise?

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The area had been taken over by a man named Bobby Hise, an Eagle Rock native who has been living on the streets for years, mostly on the stretch of Eagle Rock Boulevard between El Paso and York Boulevard, Orange told Patch.

According to Orange, who is in charge of safety in Eagle Rock, Hise once owned a house in the neighborhood, which fell into such disrepair that the Department of Building and Safety was forced to evacuate it. Hise inherited the house from his father, an athlete who, Orange said, represented the United States in the Olympics in the 1940s.

Find out what's happening in Eagle Rockwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Public Hazard

Orange said he asked Hise to clear out from the York-Eagle Rock Boulevard intersection because his presence was causing unsanitary conditions. Specifically, witnesses in the area had been reporting that Hise, who was bound to a wheelchair, was defecating into a bucket and burning his feces, Orange said.

“I had to get him out because people were breathing that stuff,” Orange explained, adding that over the years, Hise had refused numerous offers of help from him, including relocation to a halfway house.

Hise also appeared to have been a magnet for other homeless people who, Orange said, gravitated to his sanctuary. 

Charismatic Man

“The problem was that he was a very nice, well-read man who attracted all sorts of people,” Orange said. They ranged from trash pickers to others who like to hang out in the area, he explained, adding that he had heard from locals that one of the men who frequented Hise’s makeshift abode was allegedly a neighborhood burglar.

Hise had a sofa set and several shopping carts in his encampment, where, said Orange, he had reportedly been seen having sex.

Orange said he regularly patrols past the area but hasn’t seen Hise anywhere since his Jan. 11 evacuation.

Poetic Message

His former encampment, meanwhile, has no trace that he was ever there, except for a cryptic message scrawled on what appears to be a DWP meter next to a set of water pipes.

“My own eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,” reads the message, painted in fading, blue-colored capital letters. (See photo.) “He is stomping out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.”


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