Homelessness

What's It Like to Go to an Open Mic Night...on Skid Row?

It is midday last Thursday and Georgia Berkovich is rushing to ready the Day Room of the Midnight Mission, where she works as the community relations manager. L.A. musician Ken Perry tunes a guitar before accompanying a man wearing a reflective vest, as he sings "Dead or Alive" to a room-full of emp ... More >>

Homeless Vets' Tough L.A. Winter

Many reject society's lofty plans for them

LA Weekly Web Awards 2012: Mark Horvath, Best Online Do-Gooder

Best Online Do-Gooder Mark Horvath invisiblepeople.tv By 1995, Mark Horvath's L.A. dream life as a successful TV executive had turned sour. He was broke and homeless, living on Hollywood Boulevard. With the help of the Hollywood Dream Center, Horvath managed to leave the streets, start a flourishing ... More >>

Skid Row Homeless Say LAPD Is Trying to Bully Them off Their Freshly Cleaned Turf

On the fourth day of "Operation Healthy Streets" -- the city's attempt to power-wash Skid Row of its feces, syringes and lord-knows-what-else -- the regulars near 4th and Towne got into a tense standoff with the LAPD, according to Pete White with the L.A. Community Action Network. White, a homeles ... More >>

Downtown L.A. Loft Invasion is Ethnic Cleansing? Occupy Targets Force Behind Gentrification, Central City Association

The Central City Association is an influential downtown business group that has certainly supported the kind of loft development and gentrification that has transformed L.A.'s core in the last 10 years. While some of you celebrate at Art Walk, happy hour and in the club, there are folks downtown wh ... More >>

Venice's Own 'Skid Rose' Homeless Camp at 3rd Slowly Being Flushed by City Officials

Ever since the LAPD started enforcing a strict curfew along the Venice boardwalk, the homeless hangout on 3rd street (located a few blocks inland) has blossomed into a bona fied bum party. The stretch of 3rd where they sleep, between Sunset and Rose, is mostly populated by businesses and warehouses ... More >>

Venice Bum-Haters Post List of Homeless-Advocate Addresses, Call It 'Guide to Safe Camping Locations'

The debate over how to curb/contain the homeless population in Venice has been tearing the community apart for years. Homeless advocates argue that the street people have owned Venice far longer than the arty millionaires. But some residents aren't down to pay skyrocketing rents while RVs dump huma ... More >>

Venice Homeless Being Pushed off the Boardwalk, Advocates Say

Advocates for the homeless are steaming over what they say is a homeless crackdown in one of L.A.'s last bastions of free living -- Venice. The last two nights along the boardwalk and beyond LAPD officers have been contacting homeless people, warning them they can't sleep there, according to David ... More >>

[Updated] Pinkberry Co-Founder Arrested at LAX

​Update 1/17 4:15 p.m. Pinkberry's Senior Vice President of Marketing and Design Laura Jakobsen responded to the Young Lee arrest with this statement that firmly distances the co-founder from the company's current operations. Mr. Young Lee has no involvement with Pinkberry, our partners or our m ... More >>

Stations: A Los Angeles Holiday Story

There's an App For That? Homeless Teens Value Cellphones as Much as Food, Says USC Researcher

Jonathan Greenwald​Unlike sad, old homeless men and women, there's hope for homeless teens. That's because, as part of the social networking generation, they seem to stay in touch. And that's good for survival and prospects of getting off the streets, according to a new USC study. In fact ho ... More >>

Homelessness Miraculously Decreases in L.A. County Despite Foreclosures, Unemployment and Lagging Economy

Skid Row.​What to make of the latest, official homeless count in L.A., which says the number of folks on the streets here continues to decline despite this droopy economy? A) The books are being cooked! B) Homeless have somehow found landlords who accept crushed soda cans in lieu of rent. C) ... More >>

Fight in Downtown L.A. Caught on YouTube: Nobody Moved, Nobody Got Hurt

YouTubeDowntown's fight club.​Forget amateur singers. The hottest thing on YouTube lately seems to be Southern California fist fights. And they're not just for taco shops, either. The latest comes straight out of downtown L.A., where a bevy of boozed-up onlookers at a bar appeared to be treat ... More >>

Is LAPD Taking Homeless People's Shopping Carts?

CraftyBunny via Flickr​You'd think the homeless, pushing around shopping carts piled high with garbage bags and crumbling electronics, would be fairly low on the list of people to steal from. But there is one group of folks who supposedly can't stop taking and destroying their stuff. The LAPD.

Are Hipsters in Downtown L.A. Pushing Out The Homeless?

Abhijit PatilSkid Row, Los Angeles.​Is the new wave of hipsters, yuppies and loft-dwellers who have moved en masse to downtown L.A. in the last decade pushing out the longtime locals known as the homeless? It sure looks like it. At least on paper. Recent U.S. Census figures parsed by blogdown ... More >>

UCLA Researchers Surprised to Learn That Homeless Kids Use Online Social Networking to Find Sex

​How do homeless kids find someone to have sex with? According to researchers at the UCLA AIDS Institute, they do it the same way as kids with homes: on the web. That's right, they use computers, which access the web, which get them on social networking sites. And if this strikes you as a touc ... More >>

Beverly Hills Keeps Homeless Out Somehow: Street Population at 37, According to New Count

'Slums of Beverly Hills' ... as if.​Los Angeles has the largest homeless population in the nation. There's 48,000 people on the streets in L.A., more than enough to replace each person in Beverly Hills -- and then some. (That would be somethin' ... ). Interestingly, that gilded city would be ... More >>

L.A. Homeless Count Gets Off to Morbid Start: Dead Guy Found Outside Criminal Court

Dennis RomeroRV dwellers included​Ever wondered how many bums live in Los Angeles County? (That is, if the number's changed since 2009, when the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority last released its biennial count. At that time, the total was about 48,000, with only one-third living under s ... More >>

Why's It Got to Be With Me?

Amazing Rants Overheard at L.A. Bus Stops: "Why's it got to be with me?"

​ Ranter: Homeless man lying on cardboard beneath a tree Location: Bus stop, that lick of hot concrete and two trees at 3rd & Main Time: Noon on a Saturday Topics Covered: The varying levels of authority granted to municipal safety officers; district safety officer uniforms; whose ass the c ... More >>

Imperial Stars, 101 Freeway Traffic-Blockers, Due In Los Angeles Court Wednesday

imperialstars.com'Cause posin' in front of Lambos is hardcore for the homeless kids, yo.​'Member these guys? The Imperial Stars? The "hardcore hip-hop" act that blocked the 101 freeway on a mid-October morning because their cause (purportedly homeless children) is much more important than your ... More >>

V.A. Homeless Housing Facility In West L.A. To Be Completed In 2012

foreversouls via Flickr​ The Department of Veteran Affairs plans to renovate a building at its West Los Angeles campus that will house homeless veterans, with completion scheduled for 2012, according to a statement from U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein's office. The housing structure, dubbed Bui ... More >>

ACLU Drops Suit Against Santa Monica Over Its Treatment Of Homeless

​The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California announced this week it was dropping its lawsuit against the city of Santa Monica over its treatment of homeless residents. An ACLU statement indicates Santa Monica officials have agreed that " ... merely sleeping and homeless status sh ... More >>

Former Food Network Host Arrested For Planning Murder In Santa Monica

Juan-Carlos Cruz, cookbook author​CBS News is reporting that Juan-Carlos Cruz, formerly the host of Food Network's "Calorie Commando" has been arrested in Santa Monica after allegedly trying to hire a homeless man to kill his wife. Cruz was apparently scouting Santa Monica for an interested pa ... More >>

Man Who Allegedly Tried To Hire Homeless Hit Man Was Food Network Star

SMPDJuan-Carlos Cruz.​That suspect we told you about who was arrested for allegedly attempting to hire homeless people in Santa Monica to murder someone turned out to be a former Food Network chef. Juan-Carlos Cruz had hosted the network's Calorie Commando program, a show focused on diet-cons ... More >>

Suspect Arrested For Trying To Hire Homeless Hit Man In Santa Monica

SMPDJuan-Carlos Cruz.​Santa Monica police arrested a man who allegedly tried to hire a homeless person to murder someone, they announced Friday. The arrest of Los Angeles resident Juan-Carlos Cruz on suspicion of solicitation to commit murder happened Thursday at 12:30 p.m., said Sgt. Jay Tris ... More >>

Homeless Advocates Say Ease Up On Enforcement In Skid Row

​Many of the city's top advocates for the homeless recently sent a letter to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa asking him to take "reexamine Skid Row" and reconsider how the city deploys police in the Center City East area. In 2006, following coverage in the Weekly, LA CityBeat the Los Angeles Times ... More >>

Homelessness Down, Eyebrows Up

We're not the only ones who did a double take when the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority reported this week that homelessness was down 38 percent in the county compared to 2007.Kevin ScanlonAdvocate for the homeless Alice Callaghan says the numbers don't add up.​ Let's get this straigh ... More >>

Is L.A. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich Screwing Over a Little Guy?

Ever since his arrival as the new Los Angeles City Attorney this summer, Carmen Trutanich has loved to come across as a man of the people.L.A. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich​Trutanich has sparred with the L.A. City Council to the delight of many community activists; he has also personally held a t ... More >>

LA People 2009: The Spark — Agnes Stevens and the School on Wheels

Donald T. Sterling's Fake Homeless Center

After hiatus, ads began again

Home is Where the Art Is

Letters to the Editor: Monty Paulsen for President

Also, hope and skepticism for a new administration

Donald T. Sterling Fakes His Philanthropy in a New Los Angeles Times Ad

The Weekly unmasked his phony "homeless center"; now he's back with the same claim

Donald T. Sterling's Skid Row Mirage

The billionaire Clippers owner claims he's creating a major homeless center. He's not, but image is what counts.

Fields Work

Skid Row Staph

Dying to Get Off Skid Row

Downtown can be a last chance... or the last stop

Pay to Play

Homeless in Westwood

A shelter for vets sounds better than more car-dependent business

Hell Hath No Fury Like a Watchdog Scorned

Is Fran Reichenbach the patron saint of Hollywood or its biggest NIMBY?

Coming of Age in the Mouth of Madness

The kids of Skid Row

Homeless Blessed

Hollywood church sells part of its soul for a shelter

Down on Main Street

A guide to living among the crack addicts, mentally ill, homeless and young-pros-on-the-go in a changing downtown

Home With the Homeless

Spending a night with the L.A. count

Give 'em Shelter

L.A. city and county are far apart on aid to the homeless

Yanking the Welcome Mat

Streets, Sweet, Streets

The battle over the future of L.A.’s Skid Row

Off My Back

'Shirts' and homeless battle over the sidewalks of America

Street Fight

Homeless papers ready for turf war