"He was the sole provider," her son said. "We would park on the street or in friends' backyards, and then we heard about this place."
Last July, Ontario set aside a few vacant lots for the local homeless in an effort to lure them away from dangerous overpasses, bridges and railroad tracks. Tents were provided, food was donated and the city provided portable toilets.
The population rapidly grew from 18 to more than 300. City officials, worried about the expansion, say they want to limit the area to Ontario residents but haven't figured out how to do so.
"This place is growing bigger than they expected," said Anne Adams, who lived in Tent City for three months. "The city started something it can't finish."
Adams, who now works for Lighthouse Ministries, believes Ontario is trying to gradually thin the numbers in the camp to reassert control over it.
"If they don't want it to be permanent, why take their only means of transportation?" she asked. "The people here are homeless. They can't afford the $165 towing charge and the $65 a day storage fees."
The police say they are simply enforcing codes.
"These are the same codes we enforce on any city street," said Det. Jeff Higbee, spokesman for the Ontario Police Department. "It's still a city street, it's still city property and we still have to patrol it."
Looking around at the squalid tent sites, the roaming packs of dogs, the campfires, the portable toilets, Higbee acknowledged this was not a typical neighborhood.
"Obviously we aren't enforcing all the municipal codes," he said. "But we are going above and beyond to notify these people. We are giving them personal notification."
Many of the dozens of vehicles lining Jefferson and Washington streets are beat up, with cracked windows and critical parts missing. Some were towed to the encampment and left for use as homes.
Higbee pointed to a truck with a camper on top. It had no engine or transmission.
"That's just a metal tent," he said. "It's never going to move."
The owner begged for more time -- just 11 days.
"That's when my husband gets out of prison," she said.
An officer issued a warning to move it in 72 hours.
For many Tent City residents, the vehicles are all they own. Some have generators, heaters and refrigerators inside. The owners prefer them to living in tents and having to build fires each night to keep warm.
