Shocking pictures show the condition of a downtown Los Angeles, in which we can see abandoned furniture, useless tires and children’s toys – blocking pavements and covering vacant lots alongside homeless camps become a huge embarrassment for the city.
The rubbish should be cleared as soon as possible and the camps to be cleaned up as the city has a fear of diseases after a police officer was diagnosed with typhoid fever.
The latest diagnosis comes after at least nine reports of the disease in downtown LA last year, and it could be months before the waste is removed from local authorities.
But councilmen Joe Buscaino slammed the decision, saying: ‘The settlement will only perpetuate the public health crisis that already exists in Skid Row and will set a precedent for the rest of the city that will normalize encampments.
‘The city is sending a clear signal that we are turning the sidewalks in Skid Row into free, unlimited public storage, doing a disservice to the residents of Los Angeles, especially to those living on the streets.’
Shocking pictures from the downtown area show wastage piling up as workers trying to keep the area sanitized. They are captured wearing a face mask among the dirt and grime.
We can see row by row of tents line the sidewalks of Skid Row in the sprawling 50-block area, 4,200 homeless people live there, many intents and shantytowns.
A spokesman for the Los Angeles Community Action Network, said: ‘I hope this is the signal this is the sign, the proverbial crossroads, that insists we spend our money and our time on things that actually get people off the street.
‘In the interim, it is our hope that at least this provides some legal guardrails both for homeless people on the street as well as those public servants who are paid to treat the public humanely and responsibly.’
Reportedly, a Los Angeles police officer has been diagnosed with typhoid fever, a disease which spreads by contaminated food or water, and five other officers who work in the same area are showing symptoms.
In an op-ed for The LA Times reporter Steve Lopez called it ‘the collapse of a city that’s lost control’, writing: ‘We’ve got thousands of people huddled on the streets, many of them withering away with physical and mental disease.
‘Sidewalks have disappeared, hidden by tents and the kinds of makeshift shanties you see in Third World places.’
He called the city ‘a giant trash receptacle.’