AP PHOTOS: Drugs rule Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles
EVERETT, Wash. (AP) — The Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles is home to thousands of chronically homeless people.
No one shares the same story on how they ended up in this center of abject poverty, where drugs rule the streets 24/7.
"It's miserable quitting, or trying — trying anything," 33-year-old Andrew Hudson said last month while using heroin on Skid Row.
The United States' homeless population increased this year for the first time since 2010, driven by a surge in the number of people living on the streets in Los Angeles and other West Coast cities.
According to the latest nationwide count, four of every 10 people who are homeless in the U.S. have a serious drug addiction or are severely mentally ill.