According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, there are more than half a million homeless people in the United States today. That is a large number, for sure. But it actually represents a decrease in the homeless population. Between 2007 and 2017, “overall homelessness decreased 14.4 percent,” the group says.

Out of the 50 states, 30 recorded decreases in homelessness, while 20 saw increases. Among those 20 states is California, where a rise in homelessness was just described by The Los Angeles Times editorial board as a “national disgrace.”

Associated Press photographer Jae C. Hong set out in 2017 to document the plight of people living in Los Angeles’s “Skid Row,” a downtown area with one of the largest homeless populations in the United States. In an AP Images blog, Hong says he was compelled to document life in Skid Row because he was repulsed by it. “Initially, it wasn’t to bring awareness to the plight of the people there or to give voice to the homeless,” he writes. “It was more of a visual curiosity.” Hong goes on to say:

“I dialed 911 four times to get help for people. One was a drug addict passed out in the middle of a street intersection on Skid Row. Another was a naked woman in a tree in Santa Ana talking to herself in Spanish.


“There’s always an internal struggle. As a photographer, I want to capture the moment because my job is to tell the story. As a human, the agony can be too hard to watch. Some don’t know they need help or that help exists.

“I have sympathy for the poor. I don’t judge them now that I’ve seen so many people in dire situations from different circumstances and have heard about their lives. Many times I’ve tried to comfort them with encouraging words.”

What Hong shows us through his lens is a collection of people living raw, destitute lives in a place the Los Angeles Times describes as “a Dickensian dystopia in downtown Los Angeles.” There are many people there — some because of economic reasons and some for mental health reasons. But what is certain is that the sight of so many people without a place to live is a heart-rending one, as you can see through Hong’s images here.


Go to the source for the shocking photos: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2018/03/02/heartbreaking-scenes-of-homelessness-from-a-national-disgrace/?utm_term=.930c3c902e74

Homeless tent city in Anaheim, California:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04Z3Rd0rD_I

Their life still better pass Nigerians wey get house

walemoney007:
Their life still better pass Nigerians wey get house

It's really bad. They get AIDS, flesh eating bacteria, gangrenes and die from diseases if not from drug overdose. Mentally ill women get raped all the time. If there is a heat wave, they die from heat exhaustion.

The same way we Africans are proud and get offended when people post bad things about Africa, the same way Americans can also get offended when people post these images about their country.
So let 's be careful here. We should mind our own business with our dictators.

revontuli:


It's really bad. They get AIDS, flesh eating bacteria, gangrenes and die from diseases if not from drug overdose. Mentally ill women get raped all the time. If there is a heat wave, they die from heat exhaustion.

The truth is, no perfect society in any part of the world. The only difference is just that people are lazy to work in that part of the world. They probably do not plan for their life, not like what Africans have experienced through out their life. Africans are ready to work, but have bad leaders.

panafrican:
The same way we Africans are proud and get offended when people post bad things about Africa, the same way Americans can also get offended when people post these images about their country.
So let 's be careful here. We should mind our own business with our dictators.

It isn't about being offensive but aware what is really happening around the world. If Americans get offensive to this picture, it is because, they are of little and shallow brains. Trump had once called Africa shithole. Truth be told, he is not lying.

guiddoti:
The truth is, no perfect society in any part of the world. The only difference is just that people are lazy to work in that part of the world. They probably do not plan for their life, not like what Africans have experienced through out their life. Africans are ready to work, but have bad leaders.

Majority of the American homeless are mentally ill or disabled. Some people lose their jobs and mental health and end up in the streets like this. Especially the war veterans who got mentally disabled from the PTSD trauma and never received any psychiatric help.
I lived in places with high homeless population, saw loads of homeless on the street and not one of them looked capable of work. Most of them were completely insane, screaming and talking to themselves, talking gibberish stuff, many were also physically disabled.

Reagan's patient dumping policies made homelessness an endemic problem. They defunded and closed down the mental institutions and dumped all the patients on the street in the 80's.

revontuli:


Majority of the American homeless are mentally ill or disabled. Some people lose their jobs and mental health and end up in the streets like this. Especially the war veterans who got mentally disabled from the PTSD trauma and never received any psychiatric help.
I lived in places with high homeless population, saw loads of homeless on the street and not one of them looked capable of work. Most of them were completely insane, screaming and talking to themselves, talking gibberish stuff, many were also physically disabled.

Reagan's patient dumping policies made homelessness an endemic problem. They defunded and closed down the mental institutions and dumped all the patients on the street in the 80's.

What would have caused their mentally illness.? Is it that government is not bother of these people?

guiddoti:
What would have caused their mentally illness.? Is it that government is not bother of these people?

Government doesn't care about the underclass at all. Mentally ill people are put in hospitals in all other developed countries, in America they are just dumped on the street. Some became addicted to drugs and lost everything, some are child abuse/pedophilia victims, some are war veterans, some lost their homes in economic crisis and became mentally ill after losing everything, some have hereditary mental illness. There used to be care facilities for the mentally ill, but Reagan did away with it and the homeless population exploded after that.
2008 mortgage crisis added even more numbers to the tent cities.

revontuli:


Government doesn't care about the underclass at all. Mentally ill people are put in hospitals in all other developed countries, in America they are just dumped on the street. Some became addicted to drugs and lost everything, some are child abuse/pedophilia victims, some are war veterans, some lost their homes in economic crisis and became mentally ill after losing everything, some have hereditary mental illness. There used to be care facilities for the mentally ill, but Reagan did away with it and the homeless population exploded after that.
2008 mortgage crisis added even more numbers to the tent cities.

Thanks. It's really bad for government to neglect the homeless veterans.

guiddoti:
Thanks. It's really bad for government to neglect the homeless veterans.

Some good senators are trying to change the legistlation in California to make things better: http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/article200181384.html
Homelessness remains to be a bad problem in Europe, too. When I went to the UK I saw so many young people sleeping on the street. Same in Germany, one part of Hamburg was full of homeless people. Those seemed in much better shape than the homeless in the US, at least not sevrely mentally ill, god knows why and how they ended up there. But then again so many people are just one or two paychecks away from destitution, if they have weak family ties and no close friends they will end up on the street if they lose their job.

revontuli:


Some good senators are trying to change the legistlation in California to make things better: http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/article200181384.html
Homelessness remains to be a bad problem in Europe, too. When I went to the UK I saw so many young people sleeping on the street. Same in Germany, one part of Hamburg was full of homeless people. Those seemed in much better shape than the homeless in the US, at least not sevrely mentally ill, god knows why and how they ended up there. But then again so many people are just one or two paychecks away from destitution, if they have weak family ties and no close friends they will end up on the street if they lose their job.

yeah, I think, most of homeless people in the UK are caused by bad habit because their government even tried giving stipend to these people, yet seems not working out for the government taking these ones from the street.

walemoney007:
Their life still better pass Nigerians wey get house

You are obviously poverty stricken!
Have some self respect.

wakaman:


You are obviously poverty stricken!
Have some self respect.

let me know the state and city you live before I know the answer I will give you

revontuli:


Majority of the American homeless are mentally ill or disabled. Some people lose their jobs and mental health and end up in the streets like this. Especially the war veterans who got mentally disabled from the PTSD trauma and never received any psychiatric help.
I lived in places with high homeless population, saw loads of homeless on the street and not one of them looked capable of work. Most of them were completely insane, screaming and talking to themselves, talking gibberish stuff, many were also physically disabled.

Reagan's patient dumping policies made homelessness an endemic problem. They defunded and closed down the mental institutions and dumped all the patients on the street in the 80's.

You nailed it. Kudos to you.