What Happens To Them
Photo Essay of the Homeless Community In Long Beach

There is an issue that is being neglected, a homeless issue. It is an issue that has long been present before this pandemic. While the current situation is to stay at home, many of the homeless people living in the city do not have the privilege to “stay at home.” Whether it be the cold gray pavement or a metallic bus bench to sleep or rest, it cannot be denied that they are the unfortunate victims of this COVID-19 pandemic.

He only spoke Tagalog and I regularly saw him anytime I went to get some groceries at a nearby Filipino store. I have not seen him since last week and I presume him to be dead after hearing the parademics circle the are that he resides in near my neighborhood that same week. Taken at Tambuli. Supermarket in Westside Long Beach.

He asked me for the bus direction while he was resting. Taken in the Bus Station in Downtown Long beach.

This is especially due to the fact that the United States, built on stolen land, did not guarantee its people the right to housing. Although many cities’ attempts at addressing the “Homeless Question” have mitigated the situation by recommissioning parks as ad hoc homeless shelters, it is not enough. Many more of the homeless are still in danger of exposure and the lack of effort by politicians have proven ineffective.

A man after a round of hunting bottles for recycling. Taken near The Pike.

You can’t see it from here, but he was wearing some protective gear while he was traveling the area. Taken at the Bus station in Downtown.

Mainstream media has been lacking in covering the issue that homeless people face. There are more than eighteen thousand homeless people attempting to take shelter and surviving, and the situation is critical in ensuring that they’re not forgotten in this human right conversation.

A homeless person asking for change by the side of the curb. Taken next to Yoshinoya at Willow and Atlantic.

A Homeless man sleeping with a cigarette carton as a pillow. Taken near Los Altos Park in East Long Beach.

The threat that this virus has posed to the homeless is extreme — many of whom are weak and frail due to the harsh conditions of living in squalor each night. Luckily with the support of many local organizers in the States as well as my city, Long beach, have helped reach out to the homeless and provided them with food, supplies and temporary shelter as the cases of homelessness ramp up in the States.

He was shambling across a local gas station coming to folks for some spare change, he looked shaken and tired especially after going through one of the coldest nights of the week.

Although I am not sure if the one of the right was homeless, the one of the left surely was since they were discussing having issues finding food and money with the other homeless being next to the Long Beach Convention Center

Whether or not the city would be willing to expand these shelters to libraries or other parks is still ongoing. But as it stands on the precipice if the homeless question is taken care of, the situation looking forward may very well deteriorate as more and more become exposed to this epidemic.