Los Angeles and the entire west coast has a big problem with homelessness. It's a perfect storm of terrible situations coming together.
- High rents
- Untreated addictions and/or mental illness
- Young people who had little traction in life to start with, then went into the military for four years in hopes of figuring it out. They emerge a few later with zero marketable skills or direction, but the sad capper of PTSD added to their list of woes.
- Federal court decisions that tie the hands of police and politicians every step of the way
Add relatively mild weather that's survivable in tents year-round, enough money to live (welfare, food stamps, recyclables, theft, whatever), plus a somewhat tolerant population, and you've got a disaster.
It's terribly sad and enormously frustrating.