By some accounts, there are some 60,000 people living on the streets of LA.
Before arriving in LA, I had virtually no exposure to homelessness, and had given it little thought. Here, it's unavoidable. Pick almost any street corner in LA at random, and odds are that someone with a sign and a cart full of clothes will be there. Wherever the ubiquitous California highway system passes over a surface street, you'll find a line of tents in the dark underpass. To call the magnitude of the problem distressing is an understatement.
When I first moved here seven years ago, I avoided any contact with the homeless, part of me thinking of them as an unproductive drain on the system, people who checked out and were unwilling to contribute to society.
I have a very different opinion now. I see the homeless as people the system has failed. People who, for a variety of reasons somewhat beyond their control, have been discarded and forced to live on the fringes. It's heartbreaking.
There's not a lot any one person can do, but when I encounter homeless people, I occasionally try to hand them my restaurant leftovers or small amounts of cash. A few dollars or a sandwich isn't going to get anyone off the street, but it will hopefully provide some small relief from an existence that's surely miserable beyond my ability to imagine.