L.A.'s Underworld: The Forgotten Faces Of A World-class City

The nation's largest homeless district spans 50 square blocks. To enter here is to confront a society that is raw, scavenging, extraordinarily complex.

1 minute read

December 21, 2003, 3:00 PM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen

The 1,000 or so people who sleep on the streets of downtown Los Angeles are perpetually in flight from their families, from the police, from the pain of childhood abuse, bad jobs, poverty, dead loved ones. They scatter and collect like birds, alighting on crates and curbs, sitting in rows on filthy stretches of sidewalk. They ache at night in tents and in cardboard shanties.

Thanks to Miguel A. Vazquez

FULL STORY: Skid Row: A Culture of Runaways in Downtown L.A.

Tuesday, December 16, 2003 in The Los Angeles Times

Social / Demographics California

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