LOS ANGELES, CA —Michelle, an unhoused resident of “5 Points” tent community near the Los Angeles harbor, died after being struck by a hit and run drive the night of December 17 near the Green Hills Cemetery where her son was buried. Residents were not sure if it was intentional. Michelle was one of 1,493 unhoused residents (4 a day) who died in Los Angeles between March 2020 and July 2021. 35% of these deaths occurred on sidewalks.   

Fernando, Michelle’s partner, talked about how Michelle faced a lot of adversity. “She was fierce. She was always in the mix with a smile on her face. When she got mad, she would take off on everyone. Michelle would confront LASAN (the Los Angeles Sanitation department) when they would sweep the community, confiscating residents’ tents and property. When they told her that the ravine was a safety hazard she would reply, ‘if it is, why is Sanitation taking our tents?’

According to a report from the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy 48% of unhoused deaths in Los Angeles in the last year were classified as accidental, most of these were from drug overdoses.  Black residents made up 25% of all unhoused deaths, while constituting only 8% of the region’s population.  The rates of accidental deaths and homicides were higher among unhoused people than among the general population.

Ananya Roy, director of the UCLA’s Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy said “If we were to see this metric in any other part of the world, we would dismiss that place as one of great poverty, as a violator of human rights, as a predatory government that exploits its people. We’ve got to get serious about using that metric to understand the levels of impoverishment and abandonment here in the US.”

 In September a cabinet belonging to Michelle that LASAN took and later destroyed held the death certificate of her son. Michelle’s tent was covered with rags and pink clothes. When volunteers with Street Watch LA, an advocacy group for the unhoused, brought her a new tent she wanted to move her old tent into her new tent.

The number of unhoused deaths has increased every year. In 2014 there were 614 unhoused deaths, and that figure has grown by 16% every year. Carla Orendorff, an organizer for Street Watch LA said “It’s like a war, a fight to survive. It’s now gotten so much worse, that war has been intensified, sometimes, it feels like deaths come daily.”

Michelle said everyone should live in an apartment. She wanted to come indoors. A memorial organized by residents and family will take place in January.

Can You See Me

By Theo Henderson, creator of the blog “We, the Unhoused”

People walk by me while I’m filled with pain.

I’ve been running so long to find an escape from the literal and figurative rain.

Excuse me I’m sorry to bother you,

But do you see me?

I see how you read me,

Naked hatred and fears,

When I leave this earthly sphere,

There will be no shedding of tears

You may not realize that you erased me.

You walk past me fast with fear and disgust, so me you can’t see.

It haunts me, how you will remember me.

The world watched me die only to be remembered in a lie

Cruelty and disinterest is my sad reward

Watch the fear and hate when I move forward

Living Unhoused is not free

24/7 work on survival and trauma plagues me.

How will you accept me?

This is and not been for me the land of the free

That thought stays with me.

Until I go to my grave, this will still haunt me.

Theo Henderson is the creator of the ‘We the Unhoused’ podcast. It can be heard at www.wetheunhoused.com