The Hidden Homeless of Los Angeles


Photo: Benjamin Reed / LA Times

Los Angeles has more homeless people - about 73,000 on any given night - than any other cities in the United States. But where are they exactly? In this interesting LA Times article by Jessica Garrison, you'll find that some homeless encampments can be particularly creative:

Rudy Salinas, who is in charge of outreach for PATH, recalled an encampment he encountered a few years ago under a bridge in the San Gabriel River watershed that featured a working whirlpool bath. It was powered by electricity spliced illegally from a nearby power line. The men living there had obtained the spa after it fell off a truck on the 10 Freeway; they carried in water to fill it.

Link - via growabrain

Previously on Neatorama: Police Busted a Hidden Homeless Refuge Under an Overpass


What is not told however, is where these poor sods come from. As noted int he article, "...up to three-quarters of them suffering from mental illness..."

Take a sane person who happens to be a bit depressed that day. Lost his/her job, significant other, etc., and throw him/her in a psychiactric ward. Drug and electro-shock him/her until the insurance runs out.

Then kick him/her out. Now they are too drugged up and stupid to go back to their previous life, so where do they go? You got it. Instant homeless.

Very, very sick. And very, very true.
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Ugh. That lady in the picture is HARDLY trying to find work or even attempting to give herself a better life. I've lived in the same neighborhood for the past 4 years and shes been on the same corner during that time. When I get up for work at 6AM shes there and when I get home from work at 9PM she's still there.

Don't believe me? Go one block north of Hollywood & Las Palmas. You'll see her. Maybe on her cellphone or watching her portable tv.
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