Your Life Isn't That Bad
As a society, how can we tolerate this? How do we allow it to happen...
[About many of the residents of 'Skid Row', in LA]
"They’re the elderly, and mostly they’re here to die. Some are mentally ill, some are strung out, some are sick and feeble, and many are negotiating a world of epic fear with fading faculties. The threat of predators is very real. With their fortunes - perhaps 20 dollars shy of a hundred - tucked under their mattresses, sometimes the only protection is a sharp knife under the pillow.
“They’re so broken down,” Angela tells me. “Roaches in the cereal bowl. No bath for a month.” Last week she walked into a room with a man whose foot was falling off.
“Decomposing flesh. Foot was five times the size it was supposed to be, with maggots crawling out of it. He was like, ‘What are you guys doing here?’”
I’ve seen people lying in their own fecal matter for days. I’ve seen people with major skin breakdown, where the buttock bone is shown. And what’s called sepsis, where they have fever and are truly on their deathbed. They haven’t eaten. No one’s even come to the door for days."
http://www.laweekly.com/general/features/dying-to-get-off-skid-row/14113/
[About many of the residents of 'Skid Row', in LA]
"They’re the elderly, and mostly they’re here to die. Some are mentally ill, some are strung out, some are sick and feeble, and many are negotiating a world of epic fear with fading faculties. The threat of predators is very real. With their fortunes - perhaps 20 dollars shy of a hundred - tucked under their mattresses, sometimes the only protection is a sharp knife under the pillow.
“They’re so broken down,” Angela tells me. “Roaches in the cereal bowl. No bath for a month.” Last week she walked into a room with a man whose foot was falling off.
“Decomposing flesh. Foot was five times the size it was supposed to be, with maggots crawling out of it. He was like, ‘What are you guys doing here?’”
I’ve seen people lying in their own fecal matter for days. I’ve seen people with major skin breakdown, where the buttock bone is shown. And what’s called sepsis, where they have fever and are truly on their deathbed. They haven’t eaten. No one’s even come to the door for days."
http://www.laweekly.com/general/features/dying-to-get-off-skid-row/14113/