When the words “Los Angeles” come up, many people instantly think of glamorous Hollywood and wealthy movie stars. They picture a beautiful land of opportunity. What many people fail to realize is Los Angeles is one of the most homeless places in America.

This week we read an article from the LA Times called LA’s Homelessness Surged 75% in Six Years. Thousands of more people have been put on the streets in these past years, because the economic climate is unfavorable. LA has a housing shortage problem, homeless programs are not effective enough, and minimum wage jobs are too low to pay rent. The cities of Los Angeles, Glendale, Pasadena, and Long Beach have a reported collective “total of 58,000” homeless (but as we discussed, these counts can be inaccurate so that number could be much higher than we think). “3 out of 4 homeless people live in cars, tents,” and other places not meant for human habitation. The chart in this article showed that LA is at the bottom when it comes to sheltering their homeless, having approximately only 25% of them with shelter.

I am a lover of Los Angeles, and Koreatown is my hangout spot when I go into the city. There is a small shopping center I go to and across the street are high-end apartments. “People in Koreatown step outside their fancy condos to find tents, rotting food and human feces at their doorsteps.” There are homeless people in all corners of LA, including the nice areas- but many more in the not so nice areas. I have also been on Skid Row- a depressing sight to see. There are hundreds of people with no place to sleep or clean themselves, and attempts to help the latter issue have been removed in the past. “In 1992, an activist put out portable toilets in Skid Row” but the mayor at the time removed them. They were removed again in 2006 when they were “being used for prostitution”.

Los Angeles may be famous for its movie industry wealth, but poverty is all around.

Citation: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-homeless-how-we-got-here-20180201-story.html