Steve Lopez (LA Times columnist who also wrote The Soloist) talked with local homeless people in Hollywood a few years ago. I can't find the links now, but some

Steve Lopez (LA Times columnist who also wrote The Soloist) talked with local homeless people in Hollywood a few years ago. I can't find the links now, but some were similar to TFA - local people who ended up on the street owing to a confluence of factors including eviction, injury, addiction, and bad luck. But there were a number of profiles involving people, usually outsiders, who made decision to come to southern California because they wanted to live near the beach (on a $600/month social security check) or they wanted to break into show business or the music industry. One young couple from Detroit had a friend of a friend of a friend who was a producer, bought a one-way ticket to LA and when that connection didn't pan out were stuck on the street. Even Lopez, who has done a lot to document the human tragedy on the streets of LA, seemed a little exasperated by these cases which had their origins in unrealistic assumptions about making it big or leading some sort of dream life in LA ... and the burden put on the already overwhelmed system to help people in need. I also recommend viewing some of the "Invisible People" interviews all over North America and sometimes Europe: https://www.youtube.com/c/InvisiblePeople/videos https://www.youtube.com/c/InvisiblePeople/videos