Exclusive | Homeless fixture has spent nearly 20 years on the same LA block — just check Google Maps

Tim Roller has spent so long camped out on the same stretch of East Hollywood street that Google’s cameras have turned him into a recurring character.

For nearly two decades, the homeless former math teacher has lived near a cul-de-sac off the Hollywood Freeway.

Every few years, a Google Street View car passes by, capturing another snapshot of Roller’s setup — showing him curled inside a cardboard box, stretched beneath a blanket or sitting beside makeshift shelter.

“I’ve been out here 19 years,” he told The California Post, describing life on the street as “a roller-coaster ride.”

“A lot of drug addicts, a lot of violence, a lot of crazy stuff has gone around me.”

At one point, a homeless encampment took over the area — with trash piled up and people digging holes through the night.

“I got angry with them,” Roller said. “I said, ‘There’s a rule here: no digging holes at night.’”

He later discovered why.

“It turned out the reason why they were digging holes at night was because that’s where they buried their drugs.”

Roller said he does not use drugs or alcohol. Instead, he has developed his own rules for surviving outdoors.

One is simple: Don’t eat where you sleep.

“If you eat at the spot, it attracts critters,” he said. “So why would you eat at the spot?”

Roller’s own path to homelessness has been complicated. He said he once taught math and is the father of four grown children, all of whom he said are gainfully employed and remain in regular contact with him.

He said he was addicted to gambling, fueled by his need for stimulation.

“It got me,” he explained. “I like adrenaline. I get bored easy. It keeps me going.”

His phone provides another source of stimulation. When the Post caught up with him this week, he had been playing online chess.

“I was just finished losing when you got here,” he joked.

His phone is also a survival tool. Roller uses apps to find cheap food and deals.

“I have it down,” he explained, saying he gets gift cards from UCLA for completing monthly questionnaires.

When asked what homeless need to get off the streets, Roller said the solution isn’t complicated.

“We don’t need an independent bathroom or our own room,” he said. “We just need a place to live like this, indoors.”

Roller envisions small private rooms where people can sleep, rather than traditional shelters packed with bunk beds.

“All you need to do is create a building with a lot of rooms not bigger than this, with a door,” he said.

“If you have your own room, that’s good, but you don’t need to have your own shower. You don’t need to have your own kitchen. You don’t need to have your own TV.

“All you need is a bed.”

The most difficult part about living outdoors is the weather, he said.

“The hardest part about being homeless in this weather is the occasional rain and cold that comes around,” he said.

Everything else, he believes, can be learned.

“Being homeless is natural — as natural as being a squirrel,” Roller said. “In fact, I learned how to be homeless from the squirrels and the raccoons and the skunks.”

Roller has also watched the rules surrounding homelessness change. When he first started living outside, he said people had to get up before sunrise, around 6 a.m., and go to sleep after 9 p.m.

He followed those rules for years — until COVID changed things and homeless encampments swelled.

“They made it kind of open during COVID and it never really closed down,” he said. “They started to enforce the different rules, but they didn’t actually enforce the laws.”

His corner of Hollywood has changed as well. A large fence now stands above the area where he sleeps.

“Before the fence, there was a big encampment here, but this has helped a lot,” he said. Now there’s only “people here and there.”

Buildings have risen around him, encampments have come and gone, police have chased people down his street, and elicopters have circled overhead.

Through it all, Roller has stayed.

“It’s a pretty good life,” he said. “It’s just a way I prefer.”

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