Welcome to Skid Row 2017: Shocking scale of homelessness in downtown LA is exposed in footage showing sidewalks lined with dozens of tents in deprived area where 20,000 people live on the streets
Three-minute LiveLeak clip shows the brutal reality of Christmas Day in the underbelly of Downtown LA
Shot on 5th Street, 6th Steet and San Pedro in the Skid Row district, it captures life in one of the city’s most notorious homeless hotspots
Rubbish bags litter the streets and tents have been erected to shelter residents – including women and children
Rising cost of living in California is also forcing middle class residents to live in their cars in affluent areas
By PHOEBE SOUTHWORTH
DAILYMAIL.COM
27 December 2017
Rubbish bags piled up by the pavements and littered across streets.
Tents erected in clusters where people have camped down for the night.
Dozens of directionless residents congregating by the roadside and wandering into the road.
This is what Christmas Day looked like for thousands of homeless people in the dark and dingy underbelly of Downtown Los Angeles this year.
The shocking footage – captured using a car dash camera – shows the brutal reality of life on the street for some 20,000 people in the notorious Skid Row district.
Shot on 5th Street, 6th Street and San Pedro Street, it is a stark glimpse into the day-to-day existence of some of the country’s poorest citizens – including women and children.
This area of LA’s central business zone is considered to be one of the most dangerous places to live in the city.
In Skid Row – one of the notorious homeless hotspots in the area – nine toilets are shared by some 2,000 people, according to a June report titled ‘No Place to Go’.
A lucky few will find food and somewhere warm to sleep at shelters and rescue missions.
But many are left to navigate the industrial sprawl and smoke alone.
The three-minute clip was originally published on Instagram by LA street artist Plastic Jesus then on LiveLeak by Nick Stern in the ‘Citizen Journalism’ video category.
It had only been live for 10 hours when it was viewed nearly 40,000 times.
In one frame of the viral footage, a man can be seen pushing a wheelchair in the middle of the road.
Another wheelchair-bound man reclines listlessly on a street corner while women file their thin-looking children through the crowds.
Makeshift canopies – often simply sheets erected on poles – are packed in tightly beside one another in endless rows.
The Rest…HERE
