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Desperation for the homeless on the streets of Los Angeles

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Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="A homeless man sits on a suitcase on the side of a street lined with tents housing the homeless in Downtown Los Angeles on November 22, 2023. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP)" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/life/12/10/2023121-homeless-man-afp.jpg"/><figcaption>A homeless man sits on a suitcase on the side of a street lined with tents housing the homeless in Downtown Los Angeles on November 22, 2023. Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP</figcaption></figure></div>LOS ANGELES — When Carlos Schmidt beds down on the hard streets of Los Angeles, he has nothing but a backpack and an old blanket, like thousands of other homeless people in one of the richest cities in the world&#x27;s richest country.&quot;At nighttime, I just find somewhere quiet like a park or a bus bench, where there&#x27;s not a lot of chaos,&quot; the 37-year-old told AFP.&quot;And I&#x27;ll try to rest up right there for as long as I can.&quot;Schmidt is one of some 75,500 people living on the streets of Los Angeles and its sprawling suburbs, according to a January survey.The figure is up 70 percent since 2015, in a city where sometimes shocking levels of inequality are on daily display.Impossibly glamorous people swan through the streets in top-of-the-range sports cars, hopping from a $1,000-a-head restaurant to an exclusive nightclub with an eye-watering price list.On those same streets, men and women huddle against hunger, more than a few of them grappling with untreated addiction or mental health problems.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/11/15/23/filipinos-in-canada-demand-more-affordable-housing">Filipinos in Canada demand more affordable housing</a></li></ul><div>Real estate</div>The City of Angels is not alone in California, a state that accounts for around a third of America&#x27;s known homeless, with significant populations in places including San Francisco, Sacramento and San Diego.The reasons for homelessness are manifold and compound, and include illness, addiction, family breakdown and debt.But a significant factor in the Golden State is its lopsided real estate market, where multi-million dollar homes are surprisingly common — and where median rent for a Los Angeles studio apartment is more than $1,700 a month.This is what tipped Schmidt onto the streets two years ago.Unable to make his rent, he slept on a friend&#x27;s couch until that arrangement fell apart.The $400 a week he earned in a cleaning job was not enough to keep a roof over his head. After a few weeks in hotels, his savings were gone.&quot;I&#x27;ve tried it on my own. But everything was just so expensive. On top of that, you got to get food,&quot; he said.The stress of the streets plunged him into depression, increasing his drug use, and he eventually lost his job.&quot;Sometimes it&#x27;s just easier to just give up... So that&#x27;s what I did.&quot;<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/11/01/23/nearly-half-of-filipino-families-feel-poor-sws">Nearly half of Filipino families feel poor: SWS</a></li></ul><div>State of emergency</div>The sight of scrappy tents cramming sidewalks is tragically common in Los Angeles, repeated on Hollywood&#x27;s boulevards, the streets of Venice Beach and beneath highway overpasses.The issue loomed large in last year&#x27;s mayoral election; winner Karen Bass declared a state of emergency as one of her first acts in office.The Democrat says she wants to put an end to stop-gap policies that just shift the problem — cleaning up one homeless encampment only to see it spring up a few streets away, like human Whack-a-Mole.Over the past 12 months, the city says it has dismantled 32 camps, offering accommodation to their residents. It claims to have put 21,600 people in emergency facilities -- hotels, so-called &quot;tiny house&quot; villages and other dedicated centers.The mayor has also reduced the bureaucracy that slows construction of desperately needed housing.But it&#x27;s all a long way from being fixed.&quot;Confronting this crisis is like peeling an onion,&quot; Bass told reporters. &quot;When you peel an onion, you cry.&quot;Every time we&#x27;ve taken a step forward, we find a barrier and we have to knock that barrier down.&quot;On Wednesday, Bass toured a sidewalk in front of a Hollywood school where 40 people had been sleeping a year ago.That encampment was gone; but three blocks away, a dozen grubby tents scarred Sunset Boulevard.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/07/03/23/housing-czar-says-to-deliver-100000-units-by-2024">Housing czar says to deliver 100,000 units by 2024</a></li></ul><div>The bite of inflation</div>The job facing Bass and her administration is huge and Sisyphean: dozens more people become homeless every day.An already expensive city is getting more so, as the pressures of global inflation continue to bite; tens of thousands of tenants face losing their homes now that a moratorium on evictions imposed during the Covid pandemic has lapsed.An initial mayoral pledge to provide long-term housing for everyone who has been in emergency accommodation for six months has been watered down.&quot;The reality is... interim (housing) is really going to mean more like a year-and-a-half to two years,&quot; Bass said.In any case, it&#x27;s never simple when you&#x27;re dealing with human beings.After nine months in a hotel, Jacquies Manson chose to return to his tent on a sidewalk in Venice Beach.Manson has been clean for five years after a number of drug-related stints in prison.But the hotel&#x27;s rules — including a ban on overnight visitors — were too much for him.&quot;I&#x27;m 52,&quot; he said. &quot;I don&#x27;t need someone knocking on my door at 6:00 am every morning to check that there&#x27;s nobody else in my room.&quot;Paralyzed on his left side after a stroke, he cannot find a job and receives a monthly disability allowance of $1,000.But it&#x27;s not enough.&quot;I could maybe find a crappy room for 900 bucks. But how do you want me to live off the remaining hundred dollars for a month?&quot;<div>© Agence France-Presse</div>

The sight of scrappy tents cramming sidewalks is tragically common in Los Angeles, repeated on Hollywood's boulevards, the streets of Venice Beach and beneath highway overpasses.