Notable Stats, Geography and Population Breakdown:
Los Angeles County is the most populated county in the US, and if counted as a state alone, it is more populated than 41 of our 50 states. The city of Los Angeles is the second largest city in the United States by population, after New York City. 3.9 million people live in Los Angeles, which is just over a tenth of the total people that live in California (38.4 million people), and over 1.2% of the total US population (318.9 million people); If you took 1000 random people in the US, 12 of them would live in Los Angeles County. And that is just by population.
Geographically, Los Angeles is enormous. For reference of size of the city of Los Angeles, here is a to-scale map of all the cities that fit into the Los Angeles Boundaries:
Unfortunately, geographic size does not help the housing situation. There are 2,419.6 people per square mile in Los Angeles, compared to the 239.1 people per square mile in the rest of California. Housing is scarce, especially section 8 housing: there was a new housing complex built in Boyle Heights, and in it’s fist week, they received over 8,000 applications – for a complex that has only 140 units. Not only that, but many of these units are built and designed with the intention of repurposing them into lofts. As we walked through the rapidly gentrified downtown Los Angeles, we saw many, many sigs up for “trendy lofts” for sale. And there is no one to blame, even, because this is how it works in a capitalism driven society. Everyone’s making the choice that seems the smartest, not thinking of the consequences.
What are the alternatives?
In Skid Row alone, which is just fifty blocks, there are eleven thousand homeless men, women, and children on the street on any given night. Of those eleven thousand, two thirds struggle with drugs and mental illness.
There are also between nineteen to twenty-two thousand people in the Los Angeles Jail system. California has unlimited solitary confinement, which means someone can spend their life that way. Even if you’re not in a situation that extreme, Los Angeles jail and the legal system is not kind: In the last year alone, Los Angeles paid our 40 million for misconduct.
