Ted Hayes

He inspires both faith and fear: Supporters see him as a savior, critics as a calculating opportunist. A complicated and sometimes contradictory man, his has been a life driven by far-flung dreams ---- dreams that have mostly have escaped his grasp. But it was on a night two years ago that Ted Hayes ---- under the glare of television lights ---- was dragged screaming from a sit-in for the homeless.

Re "Activist gaining little ground among blacks," Dec. 31 The article on activist Ted Hayes glossed over one important piece of information that may help explain why he hasn't galvanized the African American community around his anti-immigrant crusade. The Times writes that Hayes' Choose Black America organization was "launched and financially supported by the Federation for American Immigration Reform." The Southern Poverty Law Center officially recognizes FAIR as a "hate group" with "ties to white supremacy."

The forum seemed tailor-made for Ted Hayes, the Los Angeles homeless activist who has become one of the nation's most visible African Americans raising a ruckus about illegal immigration. A mostly black crowd had gathered at Bethel AME Church in South Los Angeles for a debate about illegal immigration's effects on the African American community. When Minister Tony Muhammad of the Nation of Islam and others called for black-brown unity, they drew boos and yells of dissent.

The forum seemed tailor-made for Ted Hayes, the Los Angeles homeless activist who has become one of the nation's most visible African Americans raising a ruckus about illegal immigration. A mostly black crowd had gathered at Bethel AME Church in South Los Angeles for a debate about illegal immigration's effects on the African American community. When Minister Tony Muhammad of the Nation of Islam and others called for black-brown unity, they drew boos and yells of dissent.

Re "A Dometown Girl," Aug. 28: The article about Olympian Joanna Hayes showed a large picture of her father, Ted Hayes, above a much smaller picture of Joanna. The article went on to describe the impact of Joanna's accomplishments on Dome Village people. The article told how her mother was abandoned with four children and supported them as a substitute teacher. That was all you wrote about her mother; everything else was about Ted Hayes. Why would you celebrate a father and picture his pride when it was her mother that held the family together?

Homeless activist Ted Hayes told residents of the city's urban campground to keep their "heads held high." At a rally that included bands performing for the camp's 600 homeless residents, Hayes, who heads an activist group called Justiceville, said, "We get a little complacent and forget that we have rights." Hayes is seeking alternatives to city- and state-sponsored assistance with such programs as employing homeless labor to manufacture geodesic domes.

Homeless activist Ted Hayes has filed documents announcing his intent to run for mayor of Los Angeles, city records show. Hayes, 37, filed a declaration of Intent to Solicit and Receive Contributions for the 1989 mayoral race on Wednesday. Hayes said he filed the documents to try to draw attention to his homeless agenda, which calls for allowing street people to remain in makeshift settlements and providing portable toilets to improve conditions on Skid Row.

Los Angeles police Sunday monitored a group of homeless people who have pitched tents on the Venice Beach, but did not issue citations enforcing a law prohibiting tents on the beach. Police action last week that cleared out makeshift shelters established by other transients along the beach prompted homeless activist Ted Hayes and a group of about 20 men and women, following him on a "trek for justice," to pitch their own tents on the beach at the foot of Rose Avenue and Ocean Front Walk.

Homeless activist Ted Hayes on Thursday filed suit against the city of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Police Department, alleging false arrest and violation of his civil rights in an incident last June. The suit, which seeks $2.5 million in punitive damages, stems from Hayes' arrest for trespassing at a homeless camp established by the city in the downtown area last summer. No charges were ever filed against Hayes, whose group, Justiceville, was among 600 homeless who stayed at the camp.

The head of the Santa Monica Rent Control Board, Susan Parker Davis, has endorsed homeless activist Ted Hayes' efforts to provide temporary housing for the homeless. "I think it's incumbent on elected officials to support people like Ted," Davis said at a recent press conference.

Dome Village, the experiment in alternative housing for the homeless, may have held its last Christmas party Saturday at the downtown Los Angeles site near the Harbor Freeway that it has occupied since 1993. Ted Hayes, an advocate for the homeless who founded the village of white geodesic fiberglass domes not far from Staples Center, said a rent increase would force the group to move next year.

At first glance, the tall black man in white robe and dreadlocks seemed out of place Saturday in a room full of middle-aged Republicans gathered for a Christmas luncheon at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades. But Los Angeles homeless activist Ted Hayes, guest speaker at the monthly meeting of the Bel-Air Republican Women's Federation, said he holds political views similar to those of the group he was invited to address.

Re "A Dometown Girl," Aug. 28: The article about Olympian Joanna Hayes showed a large picture of her father, Ted Hayes, above a much smaller picture of Joanna. The article went on to describe the impact of Joanna's accomplishments on Dome Village people. The article told how her mother was abandoned with four children and supported them as a substitute teacher. That was all you wrote about her mother; everything else was about Ted Hayes. Why would you celebrate a father and picture his pride when it was her mother that held the family together?

Below the Harbor Freeway in the homeless encampment known as Dome Village, residents have spent the past days gathering around televisions. They don't want to miss a moment of Joanna Hayes competing in the Athens Olympics. "'People would walk around yelling, 'Joanna is running! Joanna is running!' when she was on television," said Graham Foster, 49. The petite Hayes, 27, is the daughter of Dome Village's founder, homeless activist Ted Hayes.

A makeshift encampment a stone's throw from Staples Center was cleared of more than 100 street people by police before a city skip loader flattened it Monday. City officials said they were responding to complaints from local businesses, increasing crime and unsanitary conditions at the encampment, next door to a homeless shelter on Golden Avenue just west of the Harbor Freeway. Los Angeles police had posted notices warning the homeless that their camp would be dismantled Monday and offering room in shelters.

As delegates to the Democratic National Convention wine, dine and anoint a presidential candidate at Staples Center this summer, a gathering of a different sort will unfold a few blocks away--designed to highlight the stark divide separating America's rich and poor.

Talk about a sticky wicket. The airplane ticket to London was in his pocket. Welcoming letters from Buckingham Palace and No. 10 Downing Street were in his hand. So was the note from the White House proclaiming him to be an American ambassador of goodwill. But his parole officer wasn't buying any of Joe Jacobs' story. Not when Jacobs explained how he'd changed from a homeless person into a star batsman for a Downtown L.A.

Talk about a sticky wicket. The airplane ticket to London was in his pocket. Welcoming letters from Buckingham Palace and No. 10 Downing Street were in his hand. So was the note from the White House proclaiming him to be an American ambassador of goodwill. But his parole officer wasn't buying any of Joe Jacobs' story. Not when Jacobs explained how he'd changed from a homeless person into a star batsman for a Downtown L.A.