‘What Was Originally a Temporary Plan Got Kind of Comfortable’: One Man’s Experience Being Homeless in California
“Last week, Pacific Standard published my dispatch from Los Angeles’ Skid Row, featuring accounts from homeless people detailing police abuse, property seizure, and other difficulties of living on the streets. Shortly after the story published, a 27-year-old man who we’ll call Jake reached out to me to share his own story of homelessness. Jake and I grew up in the same tiny town in northern New Jersey. We played lacrosse together when we were little, and our parents were good friends. He attended my first ever birthday party, when I turned one. But over the course of our adolescence, we drifted apart. By the end of high school, we’d lost touch.”