On a recent morning, as the blanket of fog lifted into the sky, Aracelly Cauich hurried up a grassy knoll at Hollenbeck Park in Boyle Heights.
She recognized a man pacing nearby with a sandal on one foot and a frayed tennis shoe on the other. She smiled and the two caught up for a minute.
“I had housing,” the man told Cauich in Spanish, “but I lost it.”
“I know, I know,” she said, reassuringly. “But you’re on the list.”
Cauich, 49, lives a short walk from Hollenbeck Park and spends much of her free time there, often arriving with a jug of water or homemade tortas for the homeless people she has befriended in the park. She gives everyone her cellphone number and stays in touch with people who recently moved into rooms at the L.A. Grand Hotel Downtown after officials cleared out a large encampment at Hollenbeck.
