(L.A.) Benito Flores, 70, Died in El Sereno
Case Number: 2025-11574
Los Angeles County is reporting the death of a 70-year-old Latino male that occurred at his residence.
The coroner’s office identified the man as Benito Flores.
Manner of Death: Accident
Cause of Death: Blunt-Force Trauma
RIP BENITO FLORES ( July 18, 2025)
Formal pronouncement of death was made on Friday.
Ruling by the deputy medical examiner was published in mid-December.
The decedent was a housing activist who occupied a Caltrans-owned home in El Sereno for about five years, starting in 2020. He built a treehouse in the backyard to resist eviction and was found deceased under the trees behind his home.
Reference address is 5459 Shelley Street, Los Angeles, CA 90032.
Map views only approximate location and do not indicate the precise spot where the incident happened.
“Reclaimer” refers to members of the “Reclaiming Our Homes” activist group who occupied vacant, state-owned properties, particularly Caltrans homes in El Sereno, to protest homelessness and demand housing as a human right.
The movement began in March 2020 when unhoused individuals and families seized empty homes acquired decades earlier for a canceled freeway project, highlighting the waste of public resources amid a housing crisis. They argued that leaving these properties vacant was the real crime while thousands lived on streets.
Reclaimers like Benito Flores stayed in these homes, sometimes legally via temporary leases from HACLA, while pushing for permanent community ownership through measures like the Roberti Act or land trusts. Despite offers of relocation aid, many resisted eviction, with Flores building a treehouse to hold out.
Flores rejected multiple housing offers from HACLA and others, insisting on purchasing the property via the Roberti Act, though courts ruled against him.
On June 3, 2025, Flores and about 30 supporters successfully repelled an attempted lockout by L.A County Sheriff’s deputies at his occupied home on Shelley Street, with Flores retreating to his backyard treehouse after deputies handed him housing resource flyers and then departed without enforcing the eviction.
Map views show only an approximate location and do not represent the exact site of the incident.