Homeless:Down And Out in America in Photographs.

All Photographs by Gilbert Mercier
All Rights reserved in all media.

Homelessness & extreme poverty is one of the real scandals of American society.

The statistics are frightening. In Los Angeles county alone; it is currently estimated that 80,000 people are homeless. In New-Orleans post Katrina the number is 12,000 compared to 6,000 before the hurricane.

Needless to say the recession is only going to make the problem more acute. California & the City of LA are broke. What they are in the process of doing is cutting the already meager programs for mental health. Los Angeles is probably the biggest open air asylum in the world.

From all the fake & conceptual wars such as the "war on drugs" or the "war on terror "; the only one worth fighting for was Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty. This war was lost(it was actually never fought) from the get go & one can see the results everyday in streets all over America.