Economic Prism | Economic Prism Articles | Insights on Gold, Stocks, Inflation & FOMC There are places in Los Angeles where, although the sun always shines, they haven’t seen a ray of light in over 100-years. There’s a half square mile of urban decay centered on the Union Rescue Mission at 545 South San Pedro Street, where depravity, chaos, addiction, insanity and archaic diseases multiply and ricochet about like metastatic cancer.
Here, at Skid Row, some 10,000 zombies live within massive homeless encampments amongst spoils of garbage, feces, rats, and rot. With little reprieve, they roll around on a filthy ground cover composed of fragmented concrete, glass, stone, and gravel. Diseases that flourished in the Middle Ages, like typhus and flesh eating bacteria, infect these street dwellers – and those who try and help them – with remarkable efficiency.
Take Reverend Andy Bales, CEO of the Union Rescue Mission. He’s a man with a big heart and a personal commitment to action. His late father and grandfather lived homeless in a tent for many years.
Awhile back, while passing out water bottles to those he serves, Rev. Bales contracted three different deadly bacteria – E. coli, strep, and staph. Sadly, this cocktail of toxic microorganisms relentlessly attacked his body, consuming his flesh. For Rev. Bales, his encounter brought him to an important choice: Your leg or your life?
Most days he now gets around in his wheelchair…propelling it up and down the street wearing bike gloves. Occasionally, he wears a prosthetic. Still, with a warm heart and a special wisdom, Rev. Bales continues on his rescue mission. Earlier this year, and after much field research, he offered the following insight:
“This place is like a Petri dish for disease.”