Behind Hollywood's glamour: Shocking images of poverty and homelessness in downtown Los Angeles

Tents of homeless people in
downtown Los Angeles, California.

Capitalism Exposed in L.A.

What lies behind the glamorous showcase of the United States' second largest city? 

Rubbish bags piled up by the pavements and littered across streets. Tents erected in clusters where people have camped down for the night. Dozens of directionless residents congregating by the roadside and wandering into the road. 

This is what Christmas Day looked like for thousands of homeless people in the dark and dingy underbelly of Downtown Los Angeles this year.  

United States of America: The World Champion of Extreme Inequality (UN Special Report)

Source: Telesur / UNHCR Report.

"Today's United States has proved itself exceptional in ways shockingly at odds with its immense wealth and its founding commitment to human rights," the United Nations reports.

The United States – one of the world's richest and most powerful countries – is being transformed by President Donald Trump and his Republican Congress into the "world champion of inequality," according to a scathing new report by the United Nations' monitor on extreme poverty and human rights.

The Great Lie of the "American Dream": Capitalism perpetuates poverty in the USA

According to a New York Daily News report, earlier this month, the number of homeless people living on New York City's streets surged by nearly 40% this year, according to the results of an annual count. "There were 3,892 homeless people on the street, the Homeless Outreach Population Estimate done in February found — up 39% since last year, when the number was 2,794, according to results released Wednesday" the report writes. 

New York City is of course an example which highlights the great problem of homelessness that affects the United States of America. According to the official data published by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) more than half a million people - a quarter of them being children- were homeless during 2015.