'It's almost like a death watch': Severely ill homeless people are at risk of dying on the streets of Hollywood

Rachel "Raquel" Phillips, left, talks with Anthony Ruffin of Housing Works. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Steve Lopez Contact Reporter

Raquel was the one who got to me.

Not that it was easy to forget all the other people I saw while touring Hollywood in the pre-dawn hours Friday.

Rachel "Raquel" Phillips sleeps at Highland and Franklin, one of the busiest intersections in Hollywood. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Fifteen years??? The pavement is permanently discolored because Raquel has been there, in that same spot, for 15 years.

Fifteen years!

Photographer Francine Orr and I were traveling with Anthony Ruffin and Rudy Salinas of Housing Works, a nonprofit that steers homeless people into housing and services. Ruffin and Salinas were hoping to use the forecast of rain to talk people into shelter, or into hospitals, depending on the need.

Housing Works is one of the many supporters of Measure HHH on the Nov. 6 ballot in Los Angeles. It would raise $1.2 billion for housing, with the county expected to provide needed services for residents. Salinas said the current critical housing shortage is a killer. Even when Housing Works manages to persuade sick, resistant homeless people to move inside, there’s nowhere to put them.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE AT LA TIMES:

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-1030-lopez-hollywood-homeless-20161028-story.html