"A lot of our homeless population, they don't like to go into hospitals because they feel there's a stigma." When asked why he does this difficult work Velbis says, "I love it. "It's nice being able to meet the client where they're at," Velbis says. The county recently cleared out another such encampment, and it seems like some people who didn't want to give up their RVs for temporary shelter just came here instead. And on this September morning, there are more RVs than there were the last time this team was here. It's the day's first stop for this team with the nonprofit group HOPICS, which contracts with L.A. On a commercial strip in South L.A., shabby RVs are lined up bumper-to-bumper along both sides of a busy street. One RV encampment grows after another is cleared out NPR spent time with one outreach team to see what their days are like, in a place with more people living on the street than any other in the U.S. Although there's not nearly enough of that to go around. has hired more such workers to try and connect them with social services, and eventually permanent housing. As the number of unhoused people keeps going up, L.A. This is the challenge for hundreds of homelessness outreach workers who fan out every day across Los Angeles. And no matter how hard you work, the ultimate problem you're tasked with solving keeps getting worse. And even when they ask for help, you're likely not able to offer the thing they most need. Imagine going to work every day knowing that people you're trying to help might hide from you.
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