Homeless in Los Angeles -- A Sobering Article.

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LA County Jail overflows with homeless, mentally ill inmates.

A frustrated inmate can be heard screaming through a door, "Listen to me! I'm not mentally ill, not on medication, I'm not crazy. I'm not supposed to be here in the first place."

In successive cells we see one man screaming he's not suicidal; in the cell next to him is a man standing completely nude. Next to that is a man who has smeared his own feces all over his cell.

At the jail, that sense of hopelessness is blatant. A glimpse of the visitors station says it all. In other parts of the jail, the visitors station is usually filled with loved ones; family members dropping by to deliver hope and affection to an inmate. Here, it's empty. There are no visitors. The people who most need someone to care have been completely abandoned.

"The biggest added ingredient to homelessness the last few years is skyrocketing rents. So even everyday folks fall because they just can't keep up," Bales said.

Once on the streets ... loneliness and depression take over.

Cheap drugs are the only escape; and that leads to addiction and mental illness.

"They are destroyed. That is why you see the picture that you see when you visit the jail," Bales said. "Because these folks may be behaving the way they are behaving because they've been destroyed by homelessness."

Source: This ABC7 News Article

It took me about 17 months.

Oh, You've been there? In my climate homelessness is rare, people live in overcrowded apartaments (been there) but without any shelter you may not survive the winter. It looked totally different in Buenos Aires where homeless people form families and raise children on the streets - but they don't have real winters there. I suppose LA is different from both.
Good you didn't take solace in cheap drugs.

I was in Michigan at the time. Winter was Hell. Spending Christmas Eve behind a dumpster with the flu while a nearby church was filled with songs about joy and goodwill was all the incentive I needed. Imagine the scene in Gone With the Wind in which Scarlett swears "With God as my witness...", and you'll get an idea of how determined I became.Selling blood plasma to buy black-market antibiotics was bad enough.

Wow. You're a survivor.
I bow at you.

There's a huge homelessness tent city problem in Seattle. Those living in them or used to, say the majority of the people in that situation have an addiction problem.

Here's an interesting documentary that explores the problem:

That's interesting.
What has changed in Warsaw since the 80s when it looked a bit similar?
Well, quite a lot. Political system. Economical situation. Culture.
There have been some great people helping drug addicts start better lives... one of my friends is an ex-drug-addict.
I wouldn't say the problem is ultimately solved but since I remember, the situation in Warsaw has been steadily improving.

ED: thinking of it, I've noticed things like free public toilets emerged - and inside were directions to free bath for the homeless and shelter adresses. Maybe this kind of services cost less than futile law unenforcement?