A Los Angeles man took the city's homeless problem into his own hands by building dozens of tiny houses and donating them to people living on the street.

Now, he is faced with the task of evicting those same people, and hauling away their newfound tiny homes after the city ordered them removed following a new city ordinance.

Elvis Summers, the man behind the project, spent months assembling the homes and distributing them to people on the street.

The brightly colored boxes were equipped with solar powered lights and offered an alternative for people sleeping rough or in makeshift shelters on the streets of the city.

Julia Briggs Cannon says goodbye to her #MyTinyHomeProjectLA - City of LA plans to remove homes for the #homeless pic.twitter.com/jFVl0kQGKB — Genaro Molina (@GenaroMolina47) February 25, 2016

The city of Los Angeles has impounded three of the tiny houses that have popped up near the freeways in recent months. It had tagged seven more of the makeshift shelters for removal this week but, when the city Bureau of Sanitation showed up to take the structures Thursday, all seven were gone.

Summers had already carted off the homes to storage, after the city announced it planned to eventually destroy any of the structures it impounded.

"Me and my team worked around the clock," Summers said in an interview with Mashable. He said he delivered some of the tiny homes to private land where the residents can continue to live in them.

Since establishing the My Tiny Houses for the Homeless in Los Angeles (MYTHPLA) project and Starting Human nonprofit last year, Summers and his volunteers have built and placed 37 tiny homes between Inglewood and Van Nuys.

All of the structures tagged for removal by the city were located on bridges over the 110 freeway in the Ninth District of South Los Angeles, and removed at the request of City Councilman Curren Price.

"These ones were kind of high profile," Summers said. "They haven't found my others ones, and they're not going to."

"They haven't found my others ones, and they're not going to."

The homes, which are about the size of a parking spot and come equipped with lights, windows and doors that lock, are designed to offer a safe space for some of the city's tens of thousands of homeless residents. They have been funded by nearly $100,000 worth of donations since last April.

Summers said he believes his tiny homes could provide a solution to Los Angeles' growing homelessness crisis, but that the city has avoided him "like the plague."

“People can easily see that it’s effective, cheap, and gives people a warm, safe shelter for right now until permanent housing can be built,” Summers said. “That’s a threat to the city’s money. They’re taking millions of dollars from very corner they can get it from and not doing anything with it.”

The homelessness crisis in Los Angeles is so bad that the city declared a "state of emergency" last year, but it has yet to launch a comprehensive plan to deal combat the issue.

A report put out by the city last month noted that $1.87 billion would be needed to deal with the issue over the next 10 years. The city has yet to find the budget for this massive program, though Summers and other activists believe that funding alone won’t pose a solution to the problem.

“When I can make a house for $1,200, people are going to question why you need $2 billion,” Summers said. “Homelessness is not complicated. Making money off the homeless is complicated.”

The city has targeted Summers’ tiny homes for removal under Mayor Eric Garcetti's Clean Streets initiative, and disputes that the structures even qualify as homes.

"I don’t refer to these as homes or houses because they’re really not," said Bureau of Sanitation spokeswoman Elena Stern.

"They're temporary structures, and while the intent may be noble ... the structures are not fit for people to stay in them."

"They're temporary structures, and while the intent may be noble and good, the structures are not fit for people to stay in them."

The city instead classifies the structures as "bulky objects," which are permitted by city ordinances to be removed without notice, while other property can be impounded with 24 hours notice. Stern said the tiny homes pose a "safety hazard" to pedestrians by obstructing sidewalks and other public spaces, and may be unsafe for residents as well.

"They're illegal," Stern said. "They weren't built up to code, there's no running water, the electrical was not done by somebody licensed. They're not safe."

For Summers, who told the Los Angeles Times that he too used to be homeless, the evictions are personal.

“The mayor just threw out two veterans. Two of the houses I had to remove had veterans in them,” Summers told Mashable. "They paid their ticket. They shouldn’t be homeless."

Since the city does not classify the structures as houses, no eviction notice is legally required, but Stern said the bureau has provided residents of tiny homes slated for removal at least 24 hours notice. No additional structures are scheduled to be removed, Stern said.

Structures that have already been removed are being stored and will likely either be destroyed or dismantled, pending the city's review of its homeless encampment laws. Any personal belongings removed along with the structures can be claimed within 90 days at the city's skid row storage bins, except for items deemed unsafe or unsanitary, which will be destroyed.

The first three sheds seized by the city contained 100 syringes, 30 drug paraphernalia items, and a gun, Stern said.

South Los Angeles residents have taken issue with the tiny homes for seemingly condoning the storage of such items, as well as alleged as drug use, prostitution and gang activity.

“We can’t use our sidewalks, we can’t walk down our streets. There’s used condoms, needles, people doing crack inside these little tiny homes with their doors open,” said one resident, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal. “All the outsiders of our community are in favor of tiny houses, but for all of the residents it’s a nightmare.”

"I’ve met with families who are afraid to go outside their home because of the criminal activity tied to some of these structures."

Councilman Price told Mashable that the houses pose health and safety risks for residents.

"I’ve met with families who are afraid to go outside their home because of the criminal activity tied to some of these structures," he said, emphasizing that the homeless were given time to vacate, offered temporary housing and were not "left out in the cold to fend for themselves."

Despite opposition, Summers said he will continue building for the homeless, including more tiny homes for veterans and a mobile shower unit. He also plans to rally the homeless residents he’s worked with and file a class action lawsuit against the city.

“These guys are a bunch of corrupt bullies,” Summers said. “I can think of dozens of ways, and not over a ten year period, dozens of ways in a month that every single homeless person could be off the streets. There’s a lot of ways this could be a win-win for everybody, but they don’t want to listen.”

Similar tiny house initiatives have been launched for homeless people in Austin and Seattle, with much success but it seems in both cases the projects had planning permission from the city.

An estimated 30,000 people sleep on the streets in Los Angeles County every night.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.