Homeless in the South Bay: In their own words
“You know, when they won’t even look at you, they just look at the ground, what is really going on?” The South Bay community includes a small number of homeless people. Local police estimate this population is less than 50 people, with roughly 20 to 24 in Hermosa, 16 to 24 in Redondo Beach, and less than a dozen in Manhattan Beach. One local pastor, Chris Cannon, suggests these are only the visible homeless, but that a “hidden homeless” population of people who live their cars or by some other itinerant means numbers in the hundreds. But even the visibly homeless are often made invisible. It’s often easiest to look the other way. The Easy Reader sent a small team of reporters and photographers out with a simple goal: to allow members of the local homeless community to tell their own stories. Photo Mike Hammond Mike Hammond may be the most thankful man you’ll ever meet. Hammond is not homeless. But he was homeless for 17 years, and he still lives among the homeless. Six years after finding a job and home, he can still be found most every day among the ragtag community of homeless that live around the Redondo Beach pier and Veteran’s Park areas. These are the people, he says, who…
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