Hollywood, Dec 1: Xavier Cain, 48, lives in a tent under HWY 101 alongside many other unhoused people.Credit...Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times

On the Streets of Los Angeles

The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted how vulnerable the homeless population is.

Ms. Bujalski is a photojournalist and co-founder of The Mirror, Mirror Project, which uses art to connect working artists and homeless people.

The coronavirus has infected over a million people around the world. As the pandemic sweeps across the country, tens of thousands of people are living on the streets of California. Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California warned that as many as 60,000 homeless people could be infected with Covid-19, overwhelming the state’s health care systems. In Los Angeles County, where roughly 60,000 people are homeless, there are at least nine confirmed cases of coronavirus among unsheltered people.

Shelters are nearly full, and the places where many can find food, shelter and a bathroom, like libraries, gyms, and soup kitchens, are closed. The county has started setting up emergency temporary shelters in city recreation centers, and deployed portable toilets, hand-washing stations and mobile shower services at some encampments. But this will not be enough to stem the spread of the virus.

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Los Angeles, Dec 2: Yelena Kellum, 45, in her van in a gated The Shower of Hope Safe Parking lot. An estimated 16,000 people are living in their vehicles in Los Angeles.Credit...Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times

Organizations like Safe Parking LA and The Shower of Hope provide a safe and stable place to park a vehicle overnight, remain compliant with local laws, and have access to restroom facilities.

I grew up in Geneva, Ill., a small suburb outside of Chicago. In 2012, I moved to Venice, Calif., to intern with a photographer that was working on a project on wealth inequality. Before I moved to L.A. I had never seen so many homeless people. On the Venice boardwalk near my apartment, there were people living in tents or in makeshift shelters. I began to approach them and talk to them about their lives. Eventually I began bringing my camera and recorder along.

Over the years, I visited homeless communities in Echo Park, Hollywood, Eagle Rock, the San Gabriel Riverbed and downtown Los Angeles. I’ve met people who live on crowded communes because it was the only affordable option, families living in R.V.s parked on streets in Berkeley and Los Angeles, and entire communities of people living on makeshift boats in Marin County.

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Venice Beach, Calif., June 24, 2013: David Busch has been a longtime homeless activist.Credit...Rachel Bujalski
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Mr. Busch, now 64, steps out of his tent on the morning of Feb 7, 2020. His tent is next to the Google building in Venice Beach.Credit...Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times

For the homeless, something as essential as finding a clean bathroom can be a challenge. I first met David Busch in 2013, when he was petitioning the city of Los Angeles to keep the bathrooms on the boardwalk clean and accessible. He wore a small cardboard sign hung around his neck with the words “More Love” written in black marker. We talked about dissolving the stereotypes that exist around the homeless, and finding that human connection that binds us all.

In December 2019, I ran into Mr. Busch on Venice’s “Skid Rose,” just down the street from Google’s office in Venice. He was giving the leaders of the Care Program, which provides sanitation and hygiene services to the homeless, a tour of the encampments in the area and advising them on how to best connect with the community.

“A big thing we are seeing is encampment scattering, where the city literally picks up people’s tents and throws them away in order to ‘clean up’ the mess,” he told me.

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Venice Beach, Calif., Feb. 7: Kristen Tollefsen, 50, wakes up from her tent across the street from the Google building. Ms. Tollefsen went to college in Burbank for animation to make “magic like Disney.” She is a cancer survivor, and has been homeless off and on for 30 years.Credit...Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times

“These cleanups are ignoring the bigger issue at hand,” he said. “The fact is, we need more housing here in Los Angeles. And in the meantime, before the housing gets built, we need safe zones for people to live on the streets to end this chaotic disorder throughout the city as quickly as possible.”

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Hollywood, Calif., Dec 3: Dallas, 22, is living in a tent with her partner, David, 25, in Hollywood, Calif. Dallas has been homeless for two years, David for 10 years. Dallas has a baby from a previous relationship that is now in foster care.Credit...Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times

“We want to be together but there are no shelters that offer coed living spaces.”—Dallas, 22

A 2019 report by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing studies found that California has the highest share of households spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing, while 42 percent of Californians are struggling to make ends meet. For the poorest Americans, affording adequate housing has long been a challenge, but even the middle class are struggling.

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San Gabriel Riverbed, Dec 2: Amanda, a paraprofessional educator, lost her job after she was injured while working.Credit...Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times
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San Gabriel Riverbed, Dec 2: Edward Haren, 40, an automotive technician, sits outside his makeshift shelter made out of wood and tarp.Credit...Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times

Last year, I got to know Isabel and her 1-year-old daughter, Natalia. Isabel is employed full time as an office cleaner, and yet she doesn’t make enough money to secure an apartment. They sleep in her car when she exhausts the motel vouchers that The Shower of Hope, an organization that provides homeless people with mobile showers and a safe place to park their vehicle for the night, gives her.

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Los Angeles, Dec 3: Isabel, 36, and her 1-year-old daughter Natalia had been living in their car on and off for a few months.Credit...Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times
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Isabel was able to secure four nights at a motel, after she and her daughter got sick.Credit...Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times

Rose and David Cantu met 20 years ago through a mutual friend. They were evicted from their apartment in December 2018 and were living out of their car. With the coronavirus outbreak, it had become harder for them to find a public bathroom to use. Mr. Cantu passed away on Monday. Ms. Cantu fears he may have been sick with Covid-19.

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Eagle Rock, Calif., Dec. 2: David Cantu, 58, and Rose Cantu, 59, in their vehicle after spending the night sleeping in their car in a Safe Parking lot.Credit...Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times
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Hollywood, Calif., Dec. 6: David Pyle, 75, looks out in his R.V. that sits parked over Highway 101, where he has lived with his son, Jax, 36, for the last year.Credit...Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times

David Pyle moved from Indiana to Los Angeles in 2017 to support his son Jax, who is occasionally employed as an actor. He’s one of the many homeless people I met who came to Hollywood to pursue their dream to be an actor, only to wind up on the street.

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Hollywood, Calif., Dec. 1: Calvin, 37, was evicted from his apartment three years ago and has been unable find an apartment that he can afford. He lives in a tent under Highway 101.Credit...Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times

“Because we are labeled homeless, we are unseen. We could sit here butt-naked and still no one would look at us.” — Calvin Shorts Jr.

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San Gabriel Riverbed, Dec 2: Anita, 49, a poet, with her dog and boyfriend, has lived on the Riverbed for the past five years, along with about 300 other unhoused people.Credit...Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times
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Anita, 49, built a treehouse and a koi fish pond on the San Gabriel riverbed.Credit...Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times
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She lives in a tent next to the koi fish pond and the tree house she built, with her dog and boyfriend.Credit...Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times

Living on the streets or in a vehicle is not what most of these people prefer. It’s a situation they fell into and are often actively trying to overcome. Almost everyone I met spoke about wanting to have a place to call home. But the fact is that there isn’t yet enough housing to accommodate every homeless person who needs help.

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Echo Park, Calif., Dec. 3: A homeless encampment at Echo Park Lake.Credit...Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times

The median price for a house in Los Angeles is over $600,000 — more than twice the national level. The state has four of the country’s five most expensive residential markets — Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Orange County and San Diego — with Los Angeles being seventh. California accounts for 12 percent of the U.S. population, but a quarter of its homeless population. How did this happen?

Simply put, bad government — from outdated zoning laws to a 40-year-old tax provision that benefits longtime homeowners at the expense of everyone else — has created a severe shortage of houses. While decades in the making, homelessness has reached a critical point for state officials, businesses and the millions who are straining to live here. Things have been bad for a long time. The coronavirus pandemic has now highlighted how vulnerable this population is, and how we have all failed them.

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Xavier, 48, sleeps in a tent under Highway 101. “If we come into a restaurant or store the employees follow us around assuming we’re going to steal something, and it’s not right,” he said.Credit...Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times
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Xavier’s partner left him after their baby died in a car crash when he was 17. He was never able to get the help he needed to deal the trauma of losing his family, and has been homeless since.Credit...Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times

“People will honk their horns on purpose really loud under the bridge to hurt our ears.”— Xavier Cain, 48

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Echo Park, Dec 4: Jasmine, 33, and Keith, 44, in their tent where they’ve been living for the last few months. Jasmine has been homeless for six years, and Keith has been homeless for four years. They met and fell in love while living in separate shelters in Skid Row. They began living together two years ago, once they felt they could be more independent.Credit...Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times

This critical moment is an opportunity for us to do better. Forcing people from place to place and into shelters are not viable long-term solutions. Under normal circumstances it provides no protection from catching a sickness let alone a virus. The government must create more affordable housing, and it’s up to us to hold their feet to the fire. If we start now, maybe we can protect our unhoused neighbors in the first place instead of scrambling at the last minute.

Rachel Bujalski (@rachelbujalski) , a photojournalist, is a co-founder of The Mirror, Mirror Project, which uses art to connect working artists and homeless people.

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