We have the largest number of millionaires, the largest number of mansions, but also the most acute poverty in the country" (L'Obs 2014). With this statement, Gary Blasi, a Law Professor at UCLA, highlights urban segregation as a particularly striking contradiction that lies at the heart of the city of Los Angeles. Wealthy neighborhoods, such as Beverly Hills, are famed for their luxurious villas and expensive hotels, yet they stand only a few miles away from one of the poorest and most dangerous areas of the nation: Skid Row, which concentrates the highest number of homeless people in the country in a very confined area of the city. For homeless people, enjoying daily access to public space to perform life-sustaining activities is a necessary condition for their survival. However, several anti-homeless laws have been passed in Los Angeles in recent decades. In 2006, the municipality implemented a program called the Safer Cities Initiative (SCI) to secure the streets. Its primary goal was to eradicate misdemeanors such as sleeping or urinating in public.
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