– Behind the Homeless Surge in California’s High Desert:
LOS ANGELES—In the scrubby Mojave desert north of Los Angeles, a sprawling encampment of decrepit RVs sits just off a dirt road separating the city of Lancaster from Los Angeles County’s unincorporated expanse.
In every direction, garbage spreads out like an algae super bloom—beyond that, endless sand and brush, baking in the summer sun.
“Keep your head on a swivel for dogs,” a member of the city’s public safety and emergency response unit tells us. Through the haze, we see two pit bulls and a German Shepherd under a tarp, but they are tethered, too hot to move.
Freddy, a resident, seems only moderately bothered by the 110 degree temperature.
“I don’t have a car anymore, so I can’t get my own water,” he says when asked how he survives out here.
“Someone brings me water every two weeks,” he said, referring to a nonprofit.
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