2023-07-22 14:36:30
In California, mobile homes, once the symbol of a free life by the beach, have become a postcard of a less glamorous facet: the housing crisis and the increase in the number of people left homeless in that western state.
A third of the homeless population in the United States -about 335 million inhabitants- lives in this state, which is home to around 40 million residents and paradoxically has a GDP equivalent to that of some of the world’s leading economies.
In Los Angeles County alone there are more than 75,000 homeless people, with a high percentage living in trailers, vans or semi-trucks that are concentrated in various makeshift encampments.
“This is what I can afford,” Beau Beard says, pointing to his trailer parked on Jefferson Boulevard, a narrow avenue near touristy Venice Beach.
Beard moved to California for a fresh start after a couple of years in jail, but the plan didn’t go as planned.
“This is the most expensive square foot in the real estate market,” said the 57-year-old, referring to Los Angeles, where a median rent in June was $2,950.
“By the way, there is no work,” he says.
When his girlfriend became pregnant in 2020, Beard bought an RV to house the family, but authorities deemed it inappropriate and took the baby into foster care at birth.
“We thought we were making progress, but what we didn’t know was that they would take our daughter away,” she recalled.
“We’re stuck, we don’t know what to do,” Beard lamented, sitting on the porch of his trailer.
Feeling challenged by the system, he says that the caravan that separates him from his daughter also disqualifies him from benefiting from housing programs.
For the authorities, he points out, they are “in a gray area.” “We are last on the list when it comes to accommodation,” she stresses.
“They take us apart”
Jefferson Boulevard surrounds the Ballona Ecological Reserve, a rich natural area run down after decades of industrial activity.
Some vehicles have been standing on the sidelines of this road riddled with “No Parking” plates for so long that they already have artistic installations, small gardens, tables, chairs and small stoves for cooking.
In this community, where Americans, Europeans and Latin Americans live, they all say they maintain rules of coexistence and look out for each other. Several of the neighbors have dogs.
However, life there is difficult.
“It takes you, like, 10 steps to do one thing,” says Tamara Hernandez, a makeup artist who saw the rent for her Venice studio skyrocket from $450 to more than $3,000 in a decade.
“If I want to take a bath, it takes me about an hour to heat the water (…) It’s really hard here,” he explains.
To the daily difficulties, add the emotional weight of feeling marginalized.
“I don’t know why they hate us, we are good people. When it comes to us, they just push us away,” says Hernández, with perfectly outlined eyes topped with small stars.
– “Impossible” –
Steven, who did not want to give his last name, parked on Jefferson Boulevard two years ago with his wife.
The couple bought the small van they live in for $6,000 because their two salaries weren’t enough for rent in a good neighborhood.
“I think it’s better than living in drug and gang-infested areas,” he says.
To live in a middle-class neighborhood and cover basic expenses, Steven, who works in a supermarket, calculates that he would need three simultaneous jobs.
“This is the only way I think we can survive after inflation skyrocketed, because wages didn’t increase,” he stresses.
The homeless population grows consecutively in Los Angeles, a trend visible in other large cities in the United States, where inflation reached 9.1% a year ago. In June 2023, the annualized indicator had dropped to 6.5%.
In 2021, more than 7 million Americans spent more than half their income on housing, an increase of 25% over 2007, according to the NGO National Alliance to End Homelessness.
In Los Angeles, capital of the film and entertainment industry, the contrast between the mansions on the Hollywood hills and the dozens of people sleeping on tourist streets like the Walk of Fame stands out.
Steven, who is enchanted by nature in the Ballona swamps, dreams of other places.
“I’m saving to buy a piece of land, maybe in Arkansas or Missouri. I’ve already done the numbers, I want to build a fish tank and grow vegetables,” he says.
“But in California that is not going to happen. It is impossible,” he says.
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