ORANGE – The rain on Monday delayed the start of a county works project that will displace homeless people living in tents on the banks of the Santa Ana River.

But the bad weather didn’t stop protesters who showed up early in the morning and stayed for several hours.

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About 25 people gathered at Chapman Avenue near the southbound 57 freeway, holding signs under their umbrellas and chanting at passing motorists to call attention to the impending dislocation of hundreds of people in a nearby tent encampment running north to Orangewood Avenue.

The demonstrators arrived around 8:30 a.m., rallied by Facebook posts and phone calls. Some vowed to return Tuesday or later in the week, if necessary, when a change in weather will put OC Public Works crews in action.

Legal observers from the National Lawyers Guild said they were on hand to make sure the civil rights of the protesters were respected. Representatives from local offices of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Legal Aid Society of Orange County promised to return to keep an eye on how the homeless inhabitants are treated, including any illegal confiscation of their property.

Tons of boulders and dredged sand will be stored where the tent dwellers now reside, for use in flood control.

“Let them stay, county go away,” read the sign held by Jeremiah Keuilian, 11, who stood beside his mother, Krista Keuilian, of Anaheim. A fifth-grader with perfect attendance until Monday, Jeremiah explained why he came.

“To give homeless people freedom and equal rights,” Jeremiah said, looking up from under the hood of his jacket. Behind him the steady rain created mud puddles in a fenced off area where a bulldozer sat idle near some jagged boulders.

His mother is an intern at the Mental Health Association of Orange County’s office in Santa Ana, where homeless people can seek mental health treatment.

For those who complain about the ragged tent city and its populace, Krista Keuilian’s sign asked a tough question: “Would they still be an eyesore if they were your mother, son, grandpa, father, grandma, sister, daughter, brother?”

Nearby residents and business owners complain about the proximity of what, by some estimates, could be as many as 500 people – upset over vandalism, thefts, unruly behavior and blight.

The removal of the homeless inhabitants won’t be a sweeping raid but will be done gradually and hopefully with voluntary compliance, said Carrie Braun, the county’s public information manager.

“This is not going to happen overnight,” said Braun, who also was at the riverside site on Monday. “But we really do need the people camped there to understand this project is happening and will be moving forward.”

Some homeless people have already uprooted their tents and moved across to the west bank or other parts unknown. Here and there along the mile-long stretch between Chapman and Orangewood, piles of trash and other detritus – including an upturned bathtub, a pair of torn couches, soggy mattresses – marked abandoned spots in between and around the dozens of tents.

Chad Abbott, 30, and his girlfriend Meghan Fascenelli, 28, were among those who remained. They were shifting things around at their tents, a huge white tarp slanting overhead but the ground below a soggy mess.

“They can’t really make us move,” said Abbott. “They can tell us what they want; I’m not leaving.”

But one woman was paying what might be her last visit to the tent community. Denise Lindstrom Le Blanc, partially paralyzed from a stroke and in a wheelchair, said she and her husband were moved into temporary housing in Anaheim by the nonprofit Illumination Foundation and will be placed in permanent supportive housing. She’s been waiting about a year.

On Monday, all she wanted to do was find a way around the boulders and through the mud to finish sorting her things. Nearby, protesters chanted: “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! These people have nowhere to go.”

Contact the writer: 714-796-7793 or twalker@ocregister.com or on Twitter @TellTheresa