"You let people live like abandoned animals on the street?"

Los Angeles has one of the biggest homeless populations in the US. We know this because it had the first accurate homeless census done in 2005 (82,291 homeless people in 2005)

(Photo from Wikipedia)

LA's financial district is merely a few blocks away from the urine-soaked, tent-strewn streets of Skid Row, shown in these photos.



(Photos from Down and Out in Downtown LA: The Story of a Homeless Couple)

---

(Photo by Stephen Shames)

---

(Film stills from TIES ON A FENCE - Women in Downtown Los Angeles Speak Out )

---

(Photos by mattlogelin)

Notice any pattern to the faces seen here? African Americans make up 38.7% of LA's homeless population (they are only 9.5% of the general population of LA)

Listen to Jennifer Westaway's award-winning portrait of Skid Row (highly recommended), or check out this LA Times article