LOS ANGELES – Benito Flores, who more than five years ago seized a state-owned home in El Sereno to protest against homelessness in Los Angeles, has died.
A 70-year-old retired welder, Flores had been fighting to remain in the home. Last month, he and a group of supporters prevented Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies from evicting him from a small duplex on a narrow street in El Sereno.
As part of the eviction defense, Flores constructed an elaborate tree house 28 feet high in an ash tree in the home’s backyard, where he planned to retreat if police attempted to haul him out…