The ’82 Blade Runner movie got everything right about Los Angeles except for the flying cars. 

Megacorp sky-high towers that look down upon the working poor? Check. Rampant homelessness? Check. Militarized police that beat and execute people in the street? Check. Toxic air and poison rain? Checkety check check check. Hell, after wildfires became a regular “Season”, even the orange sky part came true.

There are sprawling homeless encampments. Tent cities. They line the streets, the freeways, the overpasses. There are even whole blocks; Communities Of The Unhoused. Folks just trying to survive. They are Artists. Teachers. Fast Food Workers. Yeah that’s right, many of them work. Many even have more than one job. 

Working families.

Children.

The minimum wage here in Los Angeles is $15 per hour. That might sound real good if you’re stuck in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere, or you were born before 1970, but when the average rent for a 1 bedroom apartment in LA is upwards of $1800 a month, $15 an hour don’t cut it. Nowhere close.

Grandparents.

Pets.

And that’s just rent, by the way. Then you got health insurance, dental insurance, car insurance. You gotta have a car in LA. Odds are that, if you are fortunate enough to be housed, you live at least 5 miles away from your $15 an hour job. Your first one, I mean. Other one is across town, maybe 10 miles if you’re lucky. 

Public transportation? That was killed dead in the 1940’s before you or I ever got here; a lucrative deal between Henry "I Love Fascists" Ford and The Big City. It’s why there are so many cars. And dealerships.

Phone bill, internet bill. Gotta have a phone. Most places only accept cashless now. The homeless folks all have phones. Poverty and Tech mashed together. Just like Blade Runner ‘82.

Utilities. That’s a big one. Literally. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is your only option. And, like any unregulated monopoly, they charge through the fuckin’ nose. Average LADWP bill will set you back $150 a month for a 1 bedroom apartment.

Groceries. Do you enjoy clean food, friend? By clean, I mean without poisons and chemicals? First off, you’re shit outta luck because you’re in the United States of Capitalism, and second, Whole Foods is as close as you’ll get. That’s if you can afford to shop there, of course. Hard to do on $30 an hour, much less $15. Don’t worry though, there’s no shortage of options. Gelson’s. Actually that’s more expensive than Whole Foods. More of an “upscale” community thing. You know who we mean. Let me try again. Von’s. Middle of the road pricing, owned by the Von der Ahe family until they sold it to Household Finance Corporation which is owned by HSBC Bank who then sold it to Albertson’s which in turn is owned by several investment firms, primarily Cerbrus Capital Management. Yeah see that’s the thing, there are a million brands to choose from in Los Angeles but they’re all fronts now, owned by the MegaCorps, just like the city set facades built on the movie studio backlots. Yes, even the Dollar Store. Don’t worry though, they all constantly adjust the pricing of their goods and services algorithmically with AI, even while you sleep, based on the freshest customer datasets. This is done in the interest of consumer freedom of course, ensuring that each customer pays the price that is tailored specifically for their lifestyle.

Oh yeah, what about quality of life type stuff? You know, going out to dinner, or the movies, or-

Anyway so if you miss enough payments and can't borrow money and run out of favors and [EXTRAPOLATE] you end up homeless. But not community-less. You will fall into a whole network.

An invisible society with its own rules and services. 

And each and every month the cops roll in and tear it all apart, like clockwork.

It’s called “clearing”. Here’s how it works: Once a homeless community has built itself up enough to function it’s declared a nuisance. An eyesore. A danger. Being homeless is illegal, after all. So the Boys In Blue get the call and raid the community, descending like the cosplay paramilitary operation wet dream that they are. They systematically strip the community of their property; stealing anything that they themselves want, and making it a point to destroy the rest. In front of them. Often, they laugh while doing it. Complain and you get arrested and fined. Look at the cops the wrong way and you get arrested and fined. Resist and you get beaten and arrested and fined and zero'd and then fined again for littering. Don’t worry though, CalTrans is there too, to clean it all up. All that "garbage" that was once the meager possessions of a hardworking community. And once everyone has been "processed",  the pigs peal out, and CalTrans heads towards the dump, and the space that once held a vibrant community is left empty again, save for a few broken bits of glass and metal, some bloodstains, and the loudest silence you’ve ever heard in your life.

Not long after that, the saddest and most badass thing happens, simultaneously.

The survivors come back.

And they start to rebuild.

A Christian church on Sunset Blvd holds a free bbq for practitioners and the local community every Sunday. It’s got white marble steps and faux-roman columns out front, but that doesn’t stop them from rolling out the bbq and feeding all the people that line up. What did stop them was when homeless folks started joining that line. Church put up an iron fence and gate around its white marble steps and faux-roman columns. "Food for local community members only" says the sign. I guess if you’re homeless you’re not a community member. I wonder what Jesus would have to say about that. 

If only there were some way to check.