It’s almost as if this part of town — not far from Los Angeles’ business district a few streets north, and Little Tokyo a few blocks east — has been completely forgotten. Even as a photographer living in the city for 25 years, I had been reluctant to visit. But after spending a few days in the area known to Angelenos as Skid Row, I realized that some of the men and women living there are eager to have their stories seen and heard.
San Pedro Street, between Fifth and Sixth Street, is one of the busiest areas of Skid Row and home to the nonprofit Union Rescue Mission.
Photo: Theonepointeight for The Intercept
People use tents, makeshift plastic coverings and blankets as shelter in a block-long encampment that runs down San Pedro Street.
Photo: Theonepointeight for The Intercept
William J. Perkins III, also known as GSTA, says he has been living on the streets since May 2015. “I never was homeless,” he says. “Me and my wife moved from Philadelphia ’cause they had treatment for her out here here in Los Angeles. She had lung cancer. Stage Four. So the medical expenses were a little cheaper. So when we came here, they gave me temporary housing in a drug-infested zone over there by San Julian Street. We stayed three months.” His wife passed away last year and he plans to move out of the area. “You never really thought that in America, the most powerful country, we’ll be doing that. I fought for this country. Look where I live at. They don’t take our lives seriously when we put our life on the line for this country.”
Photo: Theonepointeight for The Intercept
Roy Evensen, also known as “Cowboy,” is 66 and was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He’s been living on Skid Row for six years. After time as an Army sniper during the Vietnam War and a soldier in the 70s, he told me he had difficulties adjusting to civilian life. “I got out of the Army just about 1980. Things were going up and down for me. I couldn’t adjust right. If I hear something or dropped something, I hit the pavement, looking around, you know. We didn’t have PSTD. They called it combat fatigue, the willy nillys, or whatever. The doctors would give Valium. I didn’t want to get hooked up on that stuff. So I started drinking beer and it made me more relaxed.”
Photo: Theonepointeight for The Intercept
Stephanie Williams, in her 40s, says she has been living here by choice for a year. She has set up a place where people can learn sewing and do other arts and crafts. She was a victim of police brutality; she says cops broke her leg in a wrongful case of trespassing. “I’m not struggling. I’m not needy. I’m just here to spread the word,” she said. “Let the people know what the police are doing. They’re hurting us. I’m gonna retire here. I’m gonna be the little old lady on Fifth and San Pedro. Still sewing. Helping out. Giving back.”
Photo: Theonepointeight for The Intercept
This man, 47, goes by the name Black. “These are good people,” he says of his neighbors. “Of course, you gotta try to help yourself. Sometimes, you get lost out here. But as an individual, you gotta be able to help yourself still. I still wanna keep healthy. I still wanna try to do things and do better. But mentally, anybody can be mentally strained. A lot of people are not capable or competent of helping themselves. It could be periodic. One moment, I can be talking to you like this. And next thing you know, I can be going through something totally different which I can’t help myself. It’s just the mental aspect. But you try to keep fighting, you try to get better.”
Photo: Theonepointeight for The Intercept
People often move from one spot to another. An area might become too dangerous because of crime or drug use, several explained, or the police might force them to relocate.
Photo: Theonepointeight for The Intercept
Monty, 48, lives on Towne Avenue. His encampment is covered in papers, books and self-written notes. He explained, “I work my ass off. I’m smarter than most motherfuckers on this block. You see my paperwork, I memorize half of this shit. I can look up a movie and tell you what casting director did that. That’s what I do. That’s what these are. Casting directors, producers, directors, writers, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, CraigsList, YouTube.” His goal, he said, is to save money to go back home to Indiana and apply for a university theater degree.
Photo: Theonepointeight for The Intercept
The intersection of Crocker and Sixth features a mural painted in 2010 by artists RETNA and El Mac, in collaboration with photographer Estevan Oriol. This mural sits in the heart of Skid Row, adding a little color to the community.
Photo: Theonepointeight for The Intercept
Read The Intercept’s companion story, “The Crime of Living Without a Home in Los Angeles.”
With re that last photo — the caption reads “The intersection of Crocker and Sixth features a mural painted in 2010 by artists RETNA and El Mac, in collaboration with photographer Estevan Oriol. This mural sits in the heart of Skid Row, adding a little color to the community”…
I was wondering if the photographer understands that these murals aren’t done to “add a little color to the community” — they’re generally done (and often with busy use of colour) in order to mask and camouflage blight and make a property seem more desirable for something or other. Note well the ‘rent for filming’ sign on that building… and how well those on the sidewalk just sort of blend into the background. I’d posted a link on the other article about this sort of thing.
well said Useful! I was also in one hand disappointed and in other glad that the intercept is tackling a world problematic. like you I believe intercept should work a bit hard and in depth on the stories. I’m suggesting to them to do at least 2 more in depth stories on this subject. using more material in collaboration with the ones which are being affected like stephanie and monty. seem that they really tablet edition in what the love to do. and how about you maybe you would like to write for the intercept? all the best!
I expect the Intercept to do better than this. This is the kind of trite “photo essay” I expect to see on the Huff Post, but hope doesn’t start to pop up here. The closeups of people’s faces are mere cliches, and tell us nothing of the uniquely shocking destitution that is Skid Row. Perhaps its the full screen format, or maybe the photographer needs to take a few steps back, or more likely, “zoom out.”
Message to Useful idiot…..your name is well deserved,here’s a solution..build more fucking affordable housing,and fight less wars of aggression and stop being a useful idiot for your crooked governments…
Ok, I can see you don’t want to have an intelligent discourse and weren’t willing to read my comments in full which specifically stated that housing, and by that I mean affordable housing, is needed. Or how I’ve for months been basically grinding out how bad ‘wars’ (they’re not wars, they’re invasions and assaults) of aggression are, and how aggressive in general things have become and how broken society is — or how greed is essentially destroying people. Apologies if I didn’t make that clearer. I hope this clears it up in a more readable format. Cheers.
Like the great articles on the Intercept, I look forward to more photo essays like this one.
Yesterday morning, walking to an event on the Mall, from Metro, in D.C. , I encountered a youngish woman who looked like she belonged straight out of Athens, Greece. And my first thought was “damm this is the face of austerity”. She took my donation graciously, but I did not ask about her circumstances, wish I had. All I could say was “take care”. It was ominous.
“I fought for this country. Look where I live at. They don’t take our lives seriously when we put our life on the line for this country.”
So true.
we only pay LIP SERVICE to our vets, mouthing the “thank you for your service” or calling so and so “war hero”. but not a single dollar tax was raised to fund the wars and the vets’ upkeep. vets are treated like stray dogs after they “served”. so everyone goes around mouthing “thank you for your service”.
There are “two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners, and are not governed by the same laws…THE RICH AND THE POOR.”
Benjamin Disraeli, British novelist & prime minister), 1845. (Applicable to the United States in 2015. )
OH! SO TRUE! Brilliant quote. Thanks to: Disraeli and J Hughes.
While I agree none of this should ever happen, to anybody, I do wonder how much of their living this way is the result of ongoing drug/substance abuse but don’t want to go into programs. I also wonder how many are forced to live in such a way because they are mentally ill and lack resources that aren’t bullshit but refuse to take medication and go into SROs… or how many were released from prison/jail and had nowhere to go (I find these latter cases most frustrating). I’ve met homeless who were quite happy living homeless who didn’t appear to have any apparently flagrant mental illness or drug habits, but those are rare. I wonder how many people are just terrified of the shelter system and its long grind — it’s not A to C overnight.
While I’d never ever ever say it’s easy for people to get off the streets, most of the people in these pictures appear to have clothing and access to toilet facilities. If they cannot get jobs, it’d be nice to have context — I think it’d call better attention to the problems than showing pictures of homeless people.
I am by NO means suggesting the shelter systems are good, or even tolerable for LONG periods of time (not to mention crimes being committed in some of them, especially the male shelters), but there are organisations which exist to help people segue from the streets to independent living. I’d never call it easy or fast. I wonder how much of it is due to people not willing to try?
Apologies if this sounds cold or insensitive; I’m anything but about this matter, but I’m confused because these pictures almost seem to be pornographically suggesting it’s ALL society’s fault. I find that difficult to believe. I could argue that a lot of this is due to ‘deinstitutionalisation’ in the first place, even though ‘institutionalisation’ is a terrible thing — but the truth is a lot of people on the streets are mentally ill and there’s little to no community medical outreach or attempts to help them, and a good many of them have been known to go out of their way to avoid getting help (even those whose pictures and words were used suggest as much; there’s a lot of instability, probably moreso than their living situation instability; they have a ‘tribe’ of sorts, but maybe that holds people back from getting help too.
Just some thoughts.
One of the strangest things I’ve witnessed, incidentally, is cities busing or flying their homeless to other states. Ironically some of them are actually able to find more help in those places than where they were at but it begs the question: If people want to not be homeless, then why stay in a place with a high concentration of homeless and nowhere near enough resources? Again, not meaning to be coarse. It’s clear shit’s totally off the rails. It’s clear it’s hard as hell to get out of those situations.
What you are saying is that you would have to be crazy to have mental illness and live on the streets.
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bobdylan/likearollingstone.htm
“Like A Rolling Stone”
Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you ?
People’d call, say, “Beware doll, you’re bound to fall.”
You thought they were all kiddin’ you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin’ out
Now you don’t talk so loud
Now you don’t seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal.
How does it feel?
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone ?
No, that is not what I am saying at all. I’m saying, having had acquaintances and clients who were homeless, and getting to meet a lot of people that they knew, that a lot of them are often mentally ill and/or have drug habits (the proper term for that being ‘dual diagnosis’). I’m not talking about nonconformity — I’m talking freak out hallucinatory delusions of people out to kill them.
I am *perfectly* aware that a quite a lot of people slip through the cracks, especially now. For that matter, I am more than quite aware that a lot of those people are actually people that CAN find and do try to keep minimum wage jobs and STILL cannot remain housed. But those are two very different groups. And they should be treated differently, because if they are not then the former wind up wreaking havoc in the lives of the latter, and the former almost always, invariably, wind up in prison, in hospitals, or back on the street when they are not being helped. That’s just facts, jack.
I am *perfectly* aware that it’s a bitch to dig out from it. But I’m also aware that a lot of people don’t even TRY to take advantage of the systems that ARE in place — or, failing that, trying to make their way to a place with a far less abusive social services system (and let’s be clear: New York, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Detroit, Miami, all of the big cities — they are tremendously overtaxed, whereas smaller cities and towns often are far more humane, with far less burnt out social service workers and (horror of horrors) open beds, often in very small ‘shelters’ that are barely more than large houses — and those people often get segued back into society, and jobs, much quicker.
Many of the quotes in this photojournalist article have the people themselves saying or implying they have problems with drugs, with mental illness, with expectations, and with impatience. Hell, I can’t blame them for being impatient, but not waiting doesn’t fix things either.
I’ve heard stories of people who quite literally cannot live in housing even when it has been set up. Why is that? Because they cannot stay on their meds and they literally flip out and get violent or self-destruct — and/or they want to keep abusing drugs instead of going into programs (and a lot of people indeed will do everything they can to avoid rehab). I’m not saying all do this. I’m saying some do. And I’m saying quite a few are incapable of knowing when they need help, as well.
Until you’ve seen a homeless person in denial about having an addiction to heroin while still getting methadone and nodding off with lit cigarettes in their hands coming this close to burning a block down, or threatening to kill people because they believe you’re Satan, you may not be in the right position to be tossing Dylan quotes and asking obtuse questions. This isn’t the 60s/70s. A lot has changed. And I don’t mean in a good way.
Frankly, in the 60s, 70s, and 80s there were far more options for people who were homeless. That’s why I made my comments in the accompanying article the way I did. Maybe you didn’t see them. I’m not sure.
The point is there are no options for some of these people if they don’t want help and are unwilling to do what’s necessary to get it.., and there are more options for some others, and those people need DIFFERENT THINGS entirely: some are professionals and there are very few ways for professionals to get off the street because part of the game of getting professional jobs is having a certain image, wearing the right clothes, etc. More people need transitional housing — a lot of people would never go homeless if they could get small amounts of assistance to keep them from being evicted. And then there are people who spend far more than they have, max out credit cards, and create their own hells and expect others to feel sorry for them; those, I have a hard time with, because part of becoming an adult is taking responsibility for yourself, your life and your actions. Poor planning and a lack of self-control doesn’t excuse that. But they still deserve housing too.
Either way, you’re showing your age. ;)
“Until you’ve seen a homeless person in denial about having an addiction”
I have mental illnesses. I suffer from PTSD, anxiety and depression.
I was sexually abused at school by my History teacher and football coach. He was a Marist Brother and I was made to swear an oath never to tell.
I attempted suicide less than nine months latter.
I ended up in a string of psychiatric hospitals dosed up on drugs.
I have been on a disability support pension since 1991. I have had mental health problems since I was 16. I am now 60. I have attempted suicide on a number of occasions.
Some years ago I told my story to Shine lawyers and they commented that my case was one of the most severe they had encounted.
I have been homeless and lived on the street, in parks and in squats.
If you want to know something come talk to me, for you know nothing of the reality of suffering and finding no where to go and no one to help.
Most people have addictions for a reason. They self-medicate. That’s why I pointed out the problem of ‘dual-diagnosis’. It’s a horrible cycle. I’m not sure why you’re assuming I’m blaming addicts for being addicts, I’m saying that most have no insight — and as long as they’re under the influence they cannot really generally become capable of that insight, short of hitting bottom.
There’s an adage about addicts needing to be ready to change. And quite often, addiction creates mental illness too. The point is, you can’t get to the bottom of what is what when someone is under the influence and if they don’t want to stop using — and their use of substances literally RULES them — then what is a person supposed to do to ‘help’?
I never called you an addict. I don’t know you.
It’s clear you’ve been through a lot. I’m not sure why but I get the feeling you think I’m somehow attacking you, and I’m not. I’m not attacking the disability system either. I feel it has been abused, especially as of late — and a lot of that abuse is due to the reforms in the “welfare system” that started really hitting home in the 90s (whoever thought up ‘workfare': evil; and don’t get me started on all of these ‘food stamp challenges’ that seem to have no consideration for long-term or real-life, especially in a country where you can buy, basically, 1500+ calories of comfort food or a single piece of fruit.) It’s not right for someone in poverty to walk into a Social Security office and say their kids are disabled to get money from the government. That, to me, is pretty much akin to identity theft — and what does that do to the kids involved? What kind of example does it set?
Most psych hospitals overdrug; CERTAINLY pretty much every public psych hospital does. Most people with psych issues get put on totally inappropriate drugs even outpatient. SSRIs don’t work for many types of totally non-psychotic depression so they say, hey, I know, let’s put em on a drug like olanzepine that depletes their dopamine and makes them fat, miserable, tired, and more depressed, but hey, they can sleep now! Good going, guys, another win for the team! Not.
There’s a massive difference in how somebody with money gets treated vs someone without money, too. I’m sure you’ve experienced this.
I particularly “love” how people who once might have been gotten prescribed benzodiazepines get prescribed antipsychotics now, not because they’re having psychotic symptomology, but because benzodiazepines are ‘addictive’. I’ll give you a hint: pharma giving ‘education’ and money dictating who gets what for what. But you probably guessed that too.
But you say I don’t understand.
Everybody’s different. Not just every ‘case’. Every *person*.
I understand more than you probably think.
I’m sorry you’ve had so many bad experiences. I’m sorry you were taken advantage of, and I’m sorry you were abused. I’m sorry you had to live the way you did, and I’m sorry you went through what you went through, and I’m glad none of your suicide attempts were successful. I’m sorry you didn’t get the attention and help you needed and deserved.
I’m not the person that needs to apologise here, of course — but I can be the proxy, if that’s what you need. The people who did what was done to you are the ones who owe you all of those apologies, but they’re probably long dead by now, for the most part. I’m not going to say to let go, because I know you can’t just stop thinking about things that haunt you. But dwelling on it and constantly reminding yourself of how you were hurt generally winds up being counterproductive. Helping others out who are in the situation you were in often is far more helpful; sometimes the best you can do is offer to other people what you wish you’d had offered to you, if you’re in the position to offer it.
Somewhat O/T, but did you ever read that Viktor Frankl book I suggested in the summer reading list article comments a month or so ago? If not, I suggest you track it down.
Out of curiosity, did you ever try EMDR and/or DBT for help with your PTSD, depression and anxiety?
(One of the reasons those SSRIs don’t work on certain people, of course, btw, is because their depression is situational and well-“earned”. The cure for that kind of depression is to help people have happier, fuller lives — not put them on drugs and chuck them into the system. But that’s “hard” and requires “personal attention”… so it all just gets rationalised away by the system. The middle and upper class do this too — it’s just that their kids often get put on dopamine-raising drugs instead (with or without SSRIs and SSNRIs/et al) — despite lacking actual problems requiring it (which is to say, I fully believe in ADD/ADHD — but I don’t believe that xx% of people who are being prescribed these drugs have ADD/ADHD). Those without means… well, if they want to raise their dopamine, it’s generally much ‘easier’ to get hooked on meth. Yay, social indisparity, right?)
Incidentally that’s one reason I believe I called a lot of this sort of thing borderline-pornographic. This isn’t about helping these people, and regardless of how well-shot they are, they really don’t bring any justice to the subjects of the photos. Some are just degrading (like the woman at the top, who, it wouldn’t take much to venture, has a serious problem with drugs; how do these photos benefit her, exactly?). Or the Vietnam vet who years ago was given a script for Valium but says he chose alcohol because he didn’t want to get hooked on benzos — a lot of strides have been made with post-combat PTSD. Has anybody told him? Would he take them up on it? I’m not saying it’s for me to judge. I’m not saying it’s for you to judge. And I’m certainly not judging these people. I’m just wondering how it’s at all humane to offer a high-def photo montage of people on Skid Row. To me that’s just taking advantage.
I was given benos for my anxiety. It sent me pyschotic and took 9 months to withdraw.
Self medication is what most suffers do.
“And I’m certainly not judging these people”
I am one of those people and at any time could end up back on the streets.
Its no fun on the streets. The people you mix with (the tribe I think you put it) are very damaged individuals. I knew none that could get a job let alone hold one.
Would low resolution pictures be better or do you feel no one should be reminded these people exist?
Okay, Milton, that got a small snort out of me. …pornographically suggesting… You read more closely than I did. That characterization pretty much sits in counter-point to Apologies if this sounds cold or insensitive…
Personally, I always found it kind of amazing that the folk who, ostensibly, accepted the task of “helping the homeless” never saw themselves, or their own attitudes, as part of the problem. It doesn’t occur to them that they generate their own frustrations or lack of success. Non-conformity and non-compliance are real hurdles, but I sometimes wonder for “which side of the desk” those hurdles are the highest.
It cannot be said of the homeless that they chose to fail at something that has more status, than succeed at something that has less. But, I’ve often thought it of some who choose to “help” them.
No, what would be better is to actually have helped them out instead of basically profiting off of their suffering. Give them information on programs that help them get temporary phone numbers so they can set up job interviews. In the cities that have it, and especially for women, Dress For Success information and the like. Bring them packs of new, clean socks and underwear, bags of oranges/fresh food, public transportation cards/tokens. Find a few credentialed people willing to do pro bono work and help some of them out.
I’m pretty sure people are already aware that people are homeless; if they aren’t it’s because they’re going out of their way to not see it, and I’m pretty sure most people who visit this site already know homelessness is real, and horrible.
What I’m saying, Whitemellon, is that it’s pretty messed up to make a profit off of someone else’s poverty (I’m pretty sure theonepointeight, a “Photographer and Director based out of Los Angeles, California” got paid for taking these) and not pay it forward back to those people.
You know what would’ve been cool? Giving these people cameras temporarily, letting them take pictures of the world as they see it, and then paying them for their photos. And then put some Flattr availability so people on here (and elsewhere who see these photos) can actually DO something, not just “be reminded”.
“Monty, 48, lives on Towne Avenue. His encampment is covered in papers, books and self-written notes. He explained, “I work my ass off. I’m smarter than most motherfuckers on this block. You see my paperwork, I memorize half of this shit. I can look up a movie and tell you what casting director did that. That’s what I do. That’s what these are. Casting directors, producers, directors, writers, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, CraigsList, YouTube.” His goal, he said, is to save money to go back home to Indiana and apply for a university theater degree.”
His goal is to save up money to go home to Indiana (ostensibly to be with family) and apply for a university theater degree. Not to get a home. Not to get a job, not to get a degree in a field where he’d likely be able to find employment (and certainly not if it took him 4-6 years to graduate university, leaving him in his 50s with a new degree in a field that has very little chance of finding him employ. I’m not saying people shouldn’t have their dreams, TDSD — I’m saying that sometimes peoples’ dreams somehow get switched out in their heads with ‘goals’ — and that some people might need help figuring out what reasonable goals are. Some people don’t know that memorizing lists of IMDB data aren’t really going to make their goals come true or help them in any way. Some don’t care. And they don’t have to care. Noone’s making them care. But is it really fair to blame that on society? And if I’m suggesting that some people need more help than others to find reasonable goals for themselves, does that make me ‘bad’?
(should’ve read likely NEVER be able to find employment; most people in their YOUTH never wind up finding employment with a theater degree, so no, that’s not ageist; if anything it’s an extension of people who keep getting degrees in things that they fantasise about doing not realising it won’t pay off their student loans or get them jobs)
“I’m saying that sometimes peoples’ dreams somehow get switched out in their heads with ‘goals’ — and that some people might need help figuring out what reasonable goals are.”
utter dribble.
People who cant make rational dicissions cant make rational discissions, it is that simple.
You think it is as simple as someone telling them something and all the intrusive, racing thoughts will dissappear. The insomnia will just get better. The depression will magically lift and you will not suffer from anxiety again. No more phsychotic breaks no more hallucinations no more paranoria. No more police problems no more scheduled forensic orders. Trust will return because someone tells you to get a job.
No, you talking to person X does not qualify you to pontificate your senseless sensibilities.
I might show my age but you show ignorance mixed with arrogance.
Of course I don’t. That’s been the running theme throughout all of my replies to you — I think you just haven’t noticed, because you think I’m saying something totally different than what I’m actually saying. You’re lumping me in with your past experiences, and I get that. But that doesn’t make me one of those people that did any of that. You have no idea what I’ve done or what I’ve been through; you actually know nothing about me — you just assume I’ve no experience with hardship.
All along I’ve been saying people need help that’s appropriate to their individual needs. Some people need medication. Some people need friends. Some people just need a place to shower and some clothes and pocket money so they can pass as somebody somebody ignorant of any of this stuff would consider ’employable’. Some people need long-term care and constant check-ins. Some people can’t make good decisions and they need people who can help them make better decisions (note I didn’t say GOOD decisions; better implies useful, not ‘best’ and good is pretty much an intangible thing: you never know what’ll happen to help you get a job, but you can generalise and say certain things won’t happen — that they’re statistically improbable at best — or that they should be a hobby to be pursued and maybe turn into a career if they’re lucky — but it won’t happen when you’re living under a tarp. That’s not arrogance, it’s common-sense.
Yes, people are ignorant — they’re ignorant as f*ck. But don’t assume I’m one of them. I don’t assume you are. Everyone’s ignorant til they’re not. Some people will remain ignorant. It’s just the way the world works.
All I ever said was there’s no one-size-fits-all and merely ‘housing’ people won’t fix anything. Some people just need housing. I’d argue what happened with the mortgage crisis was utterly horrific. I’ve wanted to punch ‘house-flippers’ before. I look at their arrogance and cringe. I think about all of the banking institutions foreclosing on homes that sit empty — not even on sale. Who does that benefit? But that’s capitalism (and I’m not saying socialism is its cure).
I’ve also seen a lot of ‘aid organisations’ force their ‘recipients of charity’ sit through religious services in order to obtain food. Is that really charity? Is any ‘charity’?
I’m not Christian, but the way I see it, teach a man to fish.
I’ll reply to your other comments separately.
right.
note to self..file under ..
murikan exceptionalism.
Meanwhile, fuck the shameless lying scum in government who’ve allowed this to happen while expanding Empire around the planet.
Bernie 2016
Nice job. My only complaint is I wanted more.
Their eyes. I can’t break the gaze.
Skid Row has had the stigma of being down and out since the 60’s. Mortality rate is high. About half the residents have fell through the slats of mental health system.
Hospitals have been known to dump patients there. Street sweepers have ran over people sleeping. Building owners have installed sprinklers on roofs to spray homeless below. Some residents are there by choice. Many just end up there. It’s a place to go when there’s no place to go.
These photos, while striking, don’t illustrate the immensity of the problem.
Go to Google Maps, type in “5th St and Stanford, Los Angeles, CA”
Then go to street view, and move west on 5th St, or in the direction of the tents and the skyscrapers and million dollar condos.
An ode to capitalism!
Hi, I’m not sure if you’re still here, but your username implies you’re a teacher in downtown LA… Are you a public school teacher? If so, have you been for long? I don’t have any statistics to rely on and I was wondering if, in your experience, you’ve experienced much of a rise in your school in homeless youth and if so (or if not) what its impact has been on the kids and the educational environment? Is it being addressed much and is there help available (eg guidance counselors, support groups and the like) to the kids that need it? Thanks in advance for your reply. :)