In Los Angeles, more than a thousand people sleep on the street in cardboard boxes and tents — just a mile away from City Hall.
This is Skid Row, and compared to the affluent downtown areas that practically surround it, the area is like a different planet. Fifty blocks of sidewalk are jammed with people who live on the street, with all of their worldly possessions crammed into shopping carts and crates.
In the hot midday Southern California sun, the place stinks of urine, human excrement and garbage.
