Care Home Sharks Prey On Homeless

More than 200 elderly and disabled homeless people were recruited off Skid Row to enter care homes that took most of their assistance checks and then abused them, federal authorities said.

Some allegedly were kept against their will once they agreed to move into the facilities. One homeless man found dead last week in the Hancock Park neighborhood may have been trying to flee one of the homes under investigation.

Two Social Security Administration employees are suspected of aiding the scheme, in which more than 200 victims lost pension or subsistence money of $400 to $600 a month to the ringleaders. They have been placed on leave.

A man known only as “Big Man” allegedly was a recruiter-enforcer for the operation.

“I’m outraged at finding out how these people are being treated,” said Leslie Walker, a public affairs officer at the Social Security Administration.

“They think it’s going to be a better place than living in a shelter, and then they find out the living conditions are worse and they talk about feeling like being in prison and being afraid to leave,” Walker said.

No arrests have been made yet or charges filed in what authorities describe as a continuing investigation by federal, state and local officials, aimed at about two dozen unlicensed boarding and care homes in Los Angeles and Tulare counties.

The recruiter dubbed Big Man stands 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighs 300 pounds.