Los Angeles, United States – When Carlos Schmidt beds down on the hard streets of Los Angeles, he has nothing but a backpack and an old blanket, like thousands of other homeless people in one of the richest cities in the world’s richest country.
“At nighttime, I just find somewhere quiet like a park or a bus bench, where there’s not a lot of chaos,” the 37-year-old told AFP. “And I’ll try to rest up right there for as long as I can.”
Schmidt is one of some 75,500 people living on the streets of Los Angeles and its sprawling suburbs, according to a January survey. The figure is up 70 percent since 2015, in a city where sometimes shocking levels of inequality are on daily display.
Impossibly glamorous people swan through the streets in top-of-the-range sports cars, hopping from a $1,000-a-head restaurant to an exclusive nightclub with an eye-watering price list.
On…
