- Dodgers crush Mets 9-0 in MLB playoff series opener
- South Korea military says 'fully ready' as drone tensions soar
- Cummins back, Marsh and Head out of Pakistan ODI series
- Shanghai stocks swing after stimulus briefing as most of Asia rises
- New Zealand's Latham promises 'no fear' as he takes charge for India Tests
- Kyrgios vows to 'shut up' doubters with December comeback
- Public hearings start into death of Brit by Russian nerve agent
- Ex-Stasi officer faces verdict over 1974 Berlin border killing
- Role of government, poverty research tipped for economics Nobel
- 'Stolen satire' feeds US election misinformation
- Rookie McCarty captures first PGA Tour title in Black Desert Championship
- Australia all-rounder Green ruled out of India Test series
- Seeing double in Nigeria's 'twins capital of the world'
- UK FM to attend EU foreign affairs talks for first time in 2 years
- Carter, Billups among 13 new Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
- Ravens rip Commanders as Lions lose NFL sacks leader in win
- Hezbollah drone strike kills four, wounds dozens at Israeli base
- China says launches military drills around Taiwan
- Stewart leads Liberty past Lynx to level WNBA Finals
- England return to winning ways in Nations League, Austria thrash Norway
- UN chief says attacks on UNIFIL 'may constitute a war crime'
- Ravens outlast Commanders while Bucs batter Saints in NFL
- Dozens hurt in Israel as Hezbollah claims drone strike
- England deserve 'world class' coach: Carsley
- Burkina Faso win to become first qualifiers for 2025 AFCON
- AC Milan's Pulisic among five out for USA match in Mexico
- France's Amandine Henry retires from international football
- Centre-left set to win pro-Ukraine Lithuania's vote
- India's World Cup hopes in Pakistan hands after Australia defeat
- Zelensky says NKorea sending troops to Russian army
- England beat Finland to get back on track
- King and Lewis propel West Indies to T20 triumph over Sri Lanka
- Pre-Halloween 'Terrifier' lands atop North America box office
- 'I still plan to compete and play next season,' says Djokovic
- Harris, Trump seek advantage in knife-edge election battle
- Chepngetich shatters women's marathon world record in Chicago
- Kamindu and Asalanka power Sri Lanka to 179 against West Indies
- Chepngetich shatters women's marathon world record as Korir wins in Chicago
- Spain send injured Yamal home 'to prioritise player's health'
- In milestone, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- Iraq walks fine line with pro-Iran factions to avoid war
- Race four abandoned after New Zealand breeze into 3-0 lead in America's Cup
- West Indies win toss, put Sri Lanka in to bat in first T20
- Sudan rescuers say air strike killed 23 in Khartoum market
- Netanyahu tells UN to move Lebanon peacekeepers out of 'harm's way'
- Bangladeshi Hindus defy attack worries to celebrate festival
- Kiwis three up in America's Cup as Ineos pay for time penalty
- In a first, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- Dominant England crush Scotland at Women's T20 World Cup
- Dropped: The rise and fall of Pakistan batting maestro Babar Azam
Desperation for the homeless on the streets of Los Angeles
When Carlos Schmidt beds down on the hard streets of Los Angeles, he has nothing but a backpack and an old blanket, like thousands of other homeless people in one of the richest cities in the world's richest country.
"At nighttime, I just find somewhere quiet like a park or a bus bench, where there's not a lot of chaos," the 37-year-old told AFP.
"And I'll try to rest up right there for as long as I can."
Schmidt is one of some 75,500 people living on the streets of Los Angeles and its sprawling suburbs, according to a January survey.
The figure is up 70 percent since 2015, in a city where sometimes shocking levels of inequality are on daily display.
Impossibly glamorous people swan through the streets in top-of-the-range sports cars, hopping from a $1,000-a-head restaurant to an exclusive nightclub with an eye-watering price list.
On those same streets, men and women huddle against hunger, more than a few of them grappling with untreated addiction or mental health problems.
- Real estate -
The City of Angels is not alone in California, a state that accounts for around a third of America's known homeless, with significant populations in places including San Francisco, Sacramento and San Diego.
The reasons for homelessness are manifold and compound, and include illness, addiction, family breakdown and debt.
But a significant factor in the Golden State is its lopsided real estate market, where multi-million dollar homes are surprisingly common -- and where median rent for a Los Angeles studio apartment is more than $1,700 a month.
This is what tipped Schmidt onto the streets two years ago.
Unable to make his rent, he slept on a friend's couch until that arrangement fell apart.
The $400 a week he earned in a cleaning job was not enough to keep a roof over his head. After a few weeks in hotels, his savings were gone.
"I've tried it on my own. But everything was just so expensive. On top of that, you got to get food," he said.
The stress of the streets plunged him into depression, increasing his drug use, and he eventually lost his job.
"Sometimes it's just easier to just give up... So that's what I did."
- State of emergency -
The sight of scrappy tents cramming sidewalks is tragically common in Los Angeles, repeated on Hollywood's boulevards, the streets of Venice Beach and beneath highway overpasses.
The issue loomed large in last year's mayoral election; winner Karen Bass declared a state of emergency as one of her first acts in office.
The Democrat says she wants to put an end to stop-gap policies that just shift the problem -- cleaning up one homeless encampment only to see it spring up a few streets away, like human Whack-a-Mole.
Over the past 12 months, the city says it has dismantled 32 camps, offering accommodation to their residents. It claims to have put 21,600 people in emergency facilities -- hotels, so-called "tiny house" villages and other dedicated centers.
The mayor has also reduced the bureaucracy that slows construction of desperately needed housing.
But it's all a long way from being fixed.
"Confronting this crisis is like peeling an onion," Bass told reporters. "When you peel an onion, you cry.
"Every time we've taken a step forward, we find a barrier and we have to knock that barrier down."
On Wednesday, Bass toured a sidewalk in front of a Hollywood school where 40 people had been sleeping a year ago.
That encampment was gone; but three blocks away, a dozen grubby tents scarred Sunset Boulevard.
- The bite of inflation -
The job facing Bass and her administration is huge and Sisyphean: dozens more people become homeless every day.
An already expensive city is getting more so, as the pressures of global inflation continue to bite; tens of thousands of tenants face losing their homes now that a moratorium on evictions imposed during the Covid pandemic has lapsed.
An initial mayoral pledge to provide long-term housing for everyone who has been in emergency accommodation for six months has been watered down.
"The reality is... interim (housing) is really going to mean more like a year-and-a-half to two years," Bass said.
In any case, it's never simple when you're dealing with human beings.
After nine months in a hotel, Jacquies Manson chose to return to his tent on a sidewalk in Venice Beach.
Manson has been clean for five years after a number of drug-related stints in prison.
But the hotel's rules -- including a ban on overnight visitors -- were too much for him.
"I'm 52," he said. "I don't need someone knocking on my door at 6:00 am every morning to check that there's nobody else in my room."
Paralyzed on his left side after a stroke, he cannot find a job and receives a monthly disability allowance of $1,000.
But it's not enough.
F.Pedersen--AMWN