[custom_adv] Shocking new images from Los Angeles show the city’s descent into a rubbish-choked, rat-infested homeless camp with human faeces on the streets and feared outbreaks of disease. [custom_adv] Burgeoning mountains of decaying trash across 50 squalid blocks of LA’s downtown area has reportedly resulted in one police officer’s treatment for typhoid.Five other officers from the same Central Division police station are showing “typhus like symptoms”. [custom_adv] Photographs taken this week show homeless people wheeling belongings past row upon row of tents and people passed out on the footpath. [custom_adv] “Is it the 21st century in the largest city of a state that ranks among the world’s most robust economies, or did someone turn back the calendar a few hundred years?“Sidewalks have disappeared, hidden by tents and the kinds of makeshift shanties you see in Third World places.” [custom_adv] The city has now said it will dispose of sofas, refrigerators and other large items in the 50-block area of downtown.But councilmen Joe Buscaino slammed the decision, saying: 'The settlement will only perpetuate the public health crisis that already exists in Skid Row and will set a precedent for the rest of the city that will normalize encampments. [custom_adv] 'The city is sending a clear signal that we are turning the sidewalks in Skid Row into free, unlimited public storage, doing a disservice to the residents of Los Angeles, especially to those living on the streets.' [custom_adv] Images from the downtown area show trash piling up as workers struggle to keep the area sanitized. They are pictured wearing face masks among the dirt and grime. [custom_adv] Rows and rows of tents line the sidewalks of Skid Row in the sprawling 50-block area, home to around 4,200 homeless people, many in tents and shantytowns. [custom_adv] Some lay passed out in the street, seemingly from the effects of drugs as others are pictured lugging their property around, in search of the next spot to set up. [custom_adv] neighborhood of some 58,000 people. A 2013 study found that the district is home to over 500,000 jobs.[2] It is also part of Central Los Angeles. [custom_adv] Downtown Los Angeles is divided into neighborhoods and districts, some overlapping. Most districts are named for the activities concentrated there now or historically, e.g. the Arts, Civic Center, Fashion, Banking, Theater, Toy, and Jewelry districts. It is the hub for the city's urban rail transit system and the Metrolink commuter rail system for Southern California.
