[p_monk]

According to a report that came out a few months ago, there has been a 12% rise in homelessness in LA in the last 2 years. [1]

I believe that number is way underreported.

I don't have any evidence to point to. I've lived in Los Angeles my whole life and have spent a lot of time in and around the skid row area since the late 90's.

All I can say is that in the last year, the population on skid row has exploded. I don't know if its due to people being corralled into the area because of development in the Arts District, LA Live, etc, but the radius of skid row has at least doubled in the last year.

A couple weeks ago I drove through the area on a hot Sunday afternoon and I had to pull over because I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Block after block after block of streets full of homeless people. Not just the sidewalks, but the streets were full of crowds too. I've been to plenty of third world countries around the world, large and small, but never once have I seen so much misery in one place as I saw in DTLA a couple weeks back.

1. http://circanews.com/news/us-homelessness-recession-1

[carcamper]

I'm curious how they do get accurate numbers on homeless. Is it just people checking into shelters? I've been living in my car for 5 months now. I'm not on any homeless radar/reports/etc. How many more people like me are there that fly under the radar.

[toomuchtodo]

I'd love to hear details about why you're living out of your car.

[RandomSeeded]

Not that guy, but spent the last 6 months in my van.

Needed to leave my job, didn't have a new one lined up yet. Would have loved to keep renting my place, but bay area rents are absurd. Bought a van, will have lost about 1k after selling it, and so that was my 6mo of rent instead.

The amount of people living out of their vehicles is staggeringly high. Any attempt to count the homeless, even in LA (which I understand does the best job in the nation) will wildly undercount, as we're all doing our best to stay out of sight and not get the cops called on us.

[toomuchtodo]

Thank you for sharing!