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If you’re homeless in London, you’ve got a stark choice to make.

Search for an affordable place to live, despite waiting lists for public and social housing and vacancy rates at their lowest level in 18 years.

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You might show up to a shelter, often crowded, and hope for a bed.

Or set up a temporary home elsewhere — in a park, a bridge, a parking lot — and potentially face eviction.

City bylaw officials broke up a group of people living in a parking lot in Old East Village last week because of complaints about drug use, sexual acts and mounting debris, warning about a dozen Londoners they could be arrested for trespassing — and throwing a harsh spotlight on housing problems that have plagued the city for years.

Wayde Foss, assistant director at the Ark Aid Street Mission — the parking lot backs onto the agency’s property — said it’s not the first time a group has been shuffled out of that spot.

“They’re just getting pushed from one place to another. The problem is still there,” he said. “They’re people, and somehow, something needs to be done.”