crime world Episode 76: The homeless epidemic on Hollywood's hallowed streets

Alongside the glitter and glamour of the California Dream is a very different Los Angeles...

Nicola Tallant, Sunday World investigations editor

Nicola Tallant

February 22 2022 06:00 AM

It’s known as the city of dreams - where models, actors and artists seek fame and fortune in the shadow of the Hollywood Hills.

But alongside the glitter and glamour of the California Dream is a very different Los Angeles, one with a sprawling homeless population which has fast become the biggest social issue in America’s richest State.

Nicola Tallant talks with with LA local Glenna Gordon, a photographer whose work has appeared in the New York Times and more recently an emergency medicine technician with the city ambulance service.

She tells of the vast homeless encampments at well-known areas like Venice Beach, Skid Row and Eagle Rock, about her work on the front line of emergency healthcare, which is often a sticking plaster for chronic addicts and the mentally ill, and about the failings of housing supply and planning in a city fast serving as a warning to the rest of the world.