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 "It is a crisis in LA, and I don't think people realize the
magnitude of it," said John Kump, an outreach program manager at the
charity People Assisting the Homeless (PATH).
Los Angeles' homeless population is estimated at about 44,000, with
many of them concentrated in a bleak and chaotic square-mile patch
of downtown known as Skid Row.
The others can be seen across the sprawling metropolis of some 10
million people, sheltering under highway overpasses and on vacant
lots in ragged tent encampments, and in cars and campers lining
streets.
The number of makeshift tents and vehicles used by the homeless has
shot up by 85 percent in just the last two years to 9,535, according
to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, an independent
agency set up by the city and the county.
 Mayor Eric Garcetti proposed in September spending $100 million to
combat the problem. But he stopped short of declaring a state of
emergency that would lift barriers to housing people, or calling on
the governor and federal government for funding.
Last month, the city council gave initial approval to a plan to
shelter the homeless in public buildings and to allow people living
in cars to stay overnight in designated parking lots.
But many homeless are reluctant to leave possessions and pets on the
streets in exchange for a short night of shelter.
The health and meager belongings of the homeless will be even more
at risk when the expected rainstorms begin, advocates say.
'VERY DIFFICULT'
The last two El Ninos, in the winters of 1982-83 and 1997-98, each
walloped Los Angeles with more than 30 inches (76 cm) of rain -
double the amount that the city normally receives each year -
according to William Patzert, a climatologist at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena.
Gary Blasi, professor of law emeritus at UCLA, wrote in a Los
Angeles Times op-ed article last month that many homeless people
could die if a state of emergency is not declared that could ensure
some short-term housing solutions.
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The homeless desperately need pallets to raise their tents off the
sidewalks, he wrote, as well as heavy-duty tarpaulins, toilets,
trash collection, and portable showers.
Blasi also called for the repeal of a ruling that makes it a crime
for homeless people in Los Angeles to refuse to break down tents on
sidewalks during the day.
Even as American cities grapple with a chronic shortage of
affordable housing, as well as budget constraints on social
programs, many municipalities across the United States have also
been clamping down on homeless encampments.
Los Angeles residents pay a higher percentage of their income in
rent than any other U.S. city, according to a UCLA study last year.
For the thousands in Los Angeles who live in their cars, they may
have a roof of sorts over their heads, but basic needs go unmet.
Retired trucker Samuel Cole, 85, has lived in a camper for the past
two years after his landlord raised the rent by $100. Vandals broke
his generator, so he no longer has electricity. Like so many others,
he said that a lack of running water is one of his biggest problems.
"I just have to wash off best I can," Cole said. "Very difficult."
(Reporting by Lucy Nicholson in Los Angeles; Editing by Daniel
Wallis and Frances Kerry)
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