In early December, United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston landed in Los Angeles, the first stop on his tour of extreme poverty in the United States.
It was a Sunday, a day before he was scheduled to begin, but Alston said he decided to get a head start on his mission. One of the first things he learned was that homeless people in the area don’t have access to public toilets.
“All of the streets smelled of urine,” Alston said.
He soon discovered that “the homelessness situation in California is pretty shocking.” ...