The Streets, The People & The Stories Under The Glamorous Hollywood Sun
This is Jake, an aspiring rocker who looked all of about 16 years old. He said he is in a classic rock band. "Aerosmith type stuff". Jake has big plans for his band, but for tonight, he'll be busking for dinner on the corner of Hollywood and Highland.
Photographer Andy Hann is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this social documentary photography. From his project ‘Welcome to Hollywood‘. To see Andy’s gallery click on any image.
Jake
As I sat with Mr. Townsend, and no more than 10ft away was an unmarked door with and a line of half naked women standing outside (I think it was an audition for a rap video). Mr. Townsend, in a suit and tie, sat amongst trash. A scene I could only imagine in Hollywood.
Hollywood currently does not have any walk-in homeless shelters, and the law does not allow anyone to force help onto someone who does not want help. So for Kimberly here, who showed clear signs of Meth addiction, unless she decides to turn her life around there is not a lot of meaningful help that can be done for her.
This is Kerry from Ohio, his wife had his phone tapped, which led to him being shot in the stomach while he was in the studio recording his album, which led him to come out to LA, where he’s going to be discovered…
Jason is from Austin Texas. He’s been working the boulevard for about a year now. He said that someday he’s gonna return to TX and resume his job as a mechanic.
Darlene lives in downtown LA in a shelter. On most days she dresses up and takes the subway over to Hollywood where she wanders around for hours by herself. Today she has dressed up as a bride.
There are currently over 46,000 homeless people in LA County. Over 13,000 (30%) of those have severe mental illness.
Ted is 77 yrs old, a military vet, and a retired employee of the LA Film Commission. Ted also lives in a tent because his benefits do not match up with LA rent prices. The LA veteran homeless population, dropped by 40% last year with the help of government and nonprofit groups.
Wolfgang is from Turkey. He said, “they sent me here, but I could go back now… if I wanted to”.
In the LA homeless community, the two groups that have increased the most in numbers are females and the mentally ill. The numbers of most other groups have actually declined last year.
