Halfway through field production of my third episode of “NO FIXED ABODE: Voices of the OC Homeless” I encountered Larry Ford, unhoused veteran, skilled survivalist, “graduate” of the riverbed, and fierce advocate for, as he puts it, “The right to be somewhere.” A simple principle of life he believed in, but as he explains in an extensive interview halfway through Episode 3, a perilous philosophy to live by on the mean streets of Orange County. “I’m standing my ground out here because I have a right to stand on this ground,” he told me. “I’ve traveled all around the world. I didn’t need a house. I don’t need a destination. The Constitution guarantees it.” That was Larry Ford. His travels are over now. Larry Ford passed away on June 6, 2025 on the streets he dared to walk as a homeless man, unsheltered and unbowed. For that he was pursued and hounded by law enforcement, and universally respected and loved by the homeless, housed and unhoused, and for his many kindnesses toward them over the years, and for his unwavering advocacy on behalf of a human being’s “right to roam.”
No Fixed Abode Part 3 The Lost Ones
Even as law enforcement across Orange County attempts to drive the homeless into hastily conceived and assembled mass shelters, many of the homeless themselves are opting for the streets, the railroad tracks, and the even darker corners of the county to evade the increasingly limited options of shelter or jail. They are the shelter resistant…who feel they are better off on their own. Some may be…others may not survive long enough out there to find out.
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