African-Americans make up 8 percent of Los Angeles County’s population. But they are 42 percent of the homeless population. More than 60,000 black Angelenos experienced homelessness this year, county records show.

African-Americans make up 8 percent of Los Angeles County’s population. But they are 42 percent of the homeless population. More than 60,000 black Angelenos experienced homelessness this year, county records show.

There is a straight line from the history of redlining to today’s homelessness crisis. Mr. Wynn’s experiences show why black residents are dramatically overrepresented among those living on L.A.’s streets.

There is a straight line from the history of redlining to today’s homelessness crisis. Mr. Wynn’s experiences show why black residents are dramatically overrepresented among those living on L.A.’s streets.

Mr. Wynn’s struggles with mental illness and a criminal conviction for drug trafficking were part of the problem. But so was the rampant discrimination that restricted the housing options for his family and so many other black Angelenos.

Mr. Wynn’s struggles with mental illness and a criminal conviction for drug trafficking were part of the problem. But so was the rampant discrimination that restricted the housing options for his family and so many other black Angelenos.

When he landed on the streets in his late 50s, the experience left him shattered. “I grew up here,” he said. “I never thought I’d end up on Skid Row. Never thought that in a hundred years.”

When he landed on the streets in his late 50s, the experience left him shattered. “I grew up here,” he said. “I never thought I’d end up on Skid Row. Never thought that in a hundred years.”

As a child, Timothy Wynn lived in a single-family home in South Los Angeles. He went to college. He worked in retail and banking. He never imagined he would become homeless.

As a child, Timothy Wynn lived in a single-family home in South Los Angeles. He went to college. He worked in retail and banking. He never imagined he would become homeless.

Among all other Angelenos, the rate was 1 in 100.

Among all other Angelenos, the rate was 2 in 200.

Among all other Angelenos, the rate was 2 in 200. Among all other Angelenos, the rate was 1 in 100.

In a crowd of 100 black Angelenos, 8 were homeless at some point this year.

In a crowd of 200 black Angelenos, at least 15 were homeless at some point this year.

In a crowd of 200 black Angelenos, at least 15 were homeless at some point this year. In a crowd of 100 black Angelenos, 8 were homeless at some point this year.

Homelessness is Los Angeles’s defining crisis. Income inequality, a shortage of housing, failing mental health services and drug addiction all contribute to growing scenes of squalor across America’s second-largest city. The federal government recently estimated that a nearly 3 percent rise in homelessness nationwide this year was driven mostly by California.

Yet it does not affect everyone equally. The historic displacement and fracturing of black communities in South Los Angeles have pushed black Angelenos like Mr. Wynn onto the streets at more than eight times the rate of other groups. In interviews with more than a dozen black men who are homeless in Los Angeles, the bitter inheritance of racism came up again and again.

L.A.’s Skid Row has the largest population of homeless people in the country. Bethany Mollenkof for The New York Times

Peter Lynn, the longtime head of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, said discrimination played a major role in the origins of the crisis. “There is a staggering overrepresentation of black people in homelessness, and that is not based on poverty,” he said. “That is based on structural and institutional racism.”

Marqueece Harris-Dawson, a City Council member who represents communities in South Los Angeles, said, “The homelessness crisis we are living in now is the result of a housing crisis that has been in the making for decades.”

Decades of Displacement

Like many black families during the Second Great Migration, Mr. Wynn’s parents came to Los Angeles in the 1950s, seeking an escape from segregation and a path to a middle class life.

“Better life, job opportunities,” Mr Wynn said. “At that time California was booming. It was, ‘Go West.’”

But his family arrived in Los Angeles at a time of discrimination in housing and mortgage lending, which largely restricted black families to certain neighborhoods in South Los Angeles.

Through a practice known as redlining, real estate agents and lenders marked these neighborhoods as areas undesirable for investment, preventing residents there from obtaining home loans.

Downtown 10 Crenshaw South Park Undesirable for investment South L.A. Mr. Wynn’s childhood home Inglewood 110 Westmont Watts 405 Gardena Compton Downtown 10 Crenshaw South Park South L.A. Mr. Wynn’s childhood home Inglewood 110 Westmont Watts 405 Undesirable for investment Compton Source: Home Owners’ Loan Corporation

By 1970, three-quarters of Los Angeles County’s black population lived in just two dozen neighborhoods in South L.A. That concentration made the area a center of black culture and the site of a burgeoning black middle class.

When manufacturing jobs declined in the 1980s, black unemployment nearly doubled. Drugs and gangs ravaged the neighborhoods, kicking off a period of black flight. Harsh policing and high incarceration hollowed out the community.

In the 1990s, Latinos started moving to the area and the cost of living rose. Black residents moved to Inglewood and the Crenshaw corridor, or out of the county entirely.

These maps show the loss of majority-black neighborhoods in Los Angeles County over the last 50 years.

Black share of population 50 60 70 80% Downtown 10 Crenshaw South Park 110 Inglewood South L.A. Westmont Watts Gardena 405 Compton 2.5 miles Downtown 10 Crenshaw Inglewood 110 South L.A. Watts Compton 405 5 miles 1970 10 110 405 10 110 405 1980 10 110 405 10 110 405 1990 10 110 405 10 110 405 2000 Skid Row 10 110 405 Skid Row 10 110 405 2012 10 110 405 10 110 405 2017 By The New York Times · Source: Social Explorer analysis of census data.

By 2000, South L.A. had a new racial makeup. Once predominantly black spaces were now majority Latino, and the black residents who remained were among the city’s poorest. The Great Recession hit them the hardest while the recovery offered them the least. About a third of South L.A.’s black residents now live in poverty.

“It has been a vicious barrage of public and private policies and actions that have placed and will continue to place black individuals and families into a downward spiral into poverty,” said Chancela Al-Mansour, the director of a local housing advocacy group.

And the poor are least able to cope with L.A.’s skyrocketing housing costs. As rents rise across the county, they are rising faster in South L.A. Black households there have a particularly hard time affording rent.

Across the county, a third of black households experience severe rent burdens, with their housing costs equaling half or more of their income.

In South L.A., the share of black households experiencing severe rent burdens is about 50 percent.

33% 23% Downtown 50% 10 33% 48% 47% 30% Crenshaw 57% South L.A. South Park 46% 47% 21% Inglewood 27% 110 31% 54% Westmont Watts 50% 33% 405 Gardena 39% Compton 11% 37% 42% 33% Downtown 10 48% 33% 47% Crenshaw 57% South L.A. South Park 46% 47% Inglewood 110 31% 54% Westmont Watts 33% 405 Gardena Compton 37% 42% By The New York Times · Source: Social Explorer analysis of census data from IPUMS.

South L.A. — once the heart of the city’s black life — is now the epicenter of housing instability for black Angelenos. It is where black residents are most at risk of falling into homelessness.

Latinos in the area do not experience homelessness at nearly the same rate as African-Americans. Experts cite a variety of reasons. Rates of homelessness among white Angelenos are similar to those of Latinos, at about one in 100 residents. Asians and Pacific Islanders in Los Angeles experience homelessness at even lower rates.

From South Central to Skid Row

Mr. Wynn, now 60, had a troubled home life from the start. His parents, he said, were married “only on paper,” and he never lived with his father.

He shuttled between the homes of other family members — in Compton, East L.A., South L.A. — while his mother worked long hours at a county hospital.

At the time, the city around him was in turmoil. He recalled being terrified during the 1965 Watts riots, watching rioters loot a corner liquor store. “They drove up and down the street saying, ‘Burn baby burn,’” he said.

Mr. Wynn lived in a rented home in South Central when he was growing up. Bethany Mollenkof for The New York Times

Mr. Wynn found a measure of stability when he moved with his mother to Inglewood, part of the first wave of black families moving to what was then a white neighborhood. The old lines that separated black areas from white ones were shifting.

“Blacks moved in, and I watched the white flight out,” he said.

He eventually came to like his new, mostly white school, but it was tough at first.

“I never really felt true prejudice until I moved to Inglewood,” he said, recalling an episode of being accosted by the police at an ice cream parlor.

Mr. Wynn had a lot of dreams over the years. He fell in love with fashion. He saw a black man present the news on television, and thought he too could do that.

But he struggled with depression. And when he came out as gay, his father didn’t accept him. “I did everything in my power to be straight,” he said.

He made it to college, studying biology at the historically black Clark Atlanta College. He thought of being a doctor.

But he got caught up in drug running and was arrested with 250 pounds of marijuana. He avoided prison time, but has a felony on his record, which has haunted him ever since.

“I was so limited to what I could do,” he said.

The car where Mr. Wynn lived with his dog, Smokey, when he was homeless now sits in a parking lot. Bethany Mollenkof for The New York Times

By the time he returned to Los Angeles, his mother was preparing to retire and move to Riverside, in the Inland Empire. Black families had for years been flowing out of Los Angeles, in search of cheaper housing and an escape from crime. He followed to care for her and held several jobs, including working as a shoe salesman at Nordstrom and as a mortgage broker.

After his mother died of cancer, Mr. Wynn couldn’t get back to Los Angeles fast enough.

“I was devastated losing my mom,” he said. “She was all I had.”

He left Riverside with his dog, a chihuahua and Jack Russell mix, and about $1,000 in cash. For a time, he stayed in motels, but the money soon ran out and he was living in his car, a 12-year-old beat-up black Toyota Matrix.

“It was kind of weird because every evening your mind said, ‘I’m going to go home,’” he said. “And finally reality started kicking in, and I said, ‘Wow, there’s no home, there’s no home, there’s no home to go to.’”

Record Numbers Are Homeless

Los Angeles voters have in recent years approved more than a billion dollars to fund more housing for the homeless, and the city and county are opening up new shelters all the time. But the problem continues to worsen.

The number of people living on Los Angeles streets is at an all-time high and growing. The annual street count from January 2019 showed 44,214 people living without shelter across Los Angeles County.

Hollywood El Monte Downtown 10 Santa Monica Crenshaw Pico Rivera South L.A. Inglewood 110 Watts Norwalk Gardena Compton Number of people without shelter 405 1,000 Torrance 600 200 Long Beach 5 miles Hollywood Downtown 10 Santa Monica Crenshaw South L.A. Inglewood 110 Watts Compton 405 Number of people without shelter Torrance 1,000 600 Long Beach 200 5 miles By The New York Times · Note: Not all areas of Los Angeles County are shown. · Source: 2019 Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Street Count

There are unprecedented plans to build temporary shelters with 4,000 beds and 15,000 permanent housing units for the homeless by 2026.

The estimated number of people housed by those efforts — about 27,000 combined — would leave thousands still living on the streets.

Hollywood El Monte Downtown 10 Santa Monica Crenshaw Pico Rivera South L.A. Inglewood 110 Watts Capacity of new housing Norwalk Gardena Compton 1,000 people 405 600 200 Torrance Permanent housing Temporary shelters Long Beach 5 miles Hollywood Downtown 10 Santa Monica Crenshaw South L.A. Inglewood 110 Watts Capacity of new housing Compton 405 1,000 people Torrance 600 200 Long Beach Permanent housing Temporary shelters 5 miles By The New York Times · Note: Not all areas of Los Angeles County are shown. · Source: Los Angeles County Chief Executive Office; Los Angeles Housing and Community Investment Department

And none of this construction is likely to help solve the specific challenge of black homelessness, which experts say requires efforts that go beyond building more housing units or opening more shelters. Those efforts must address bias in everything from the rental markets to employment to criminal justice.

A report on black homelessness published a year ago by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority found racism to be the root cause, saying that black Angelenos continue to face discrimination in many areas. Over the past 50 years, for example, black homeownership in L.A. County has declined to 36 percent from 44 percent.

Mr. Lynn, the homelessness agency director, pointed to the criminal justice system, saying, “There is probably no more single significant factor than incarceration in terms of elevating somebody’s prospects of homelessness.”

The black overrepresentation in homelessness roughly tracks the same dynamic in California’s prisons: Black people make up about 6 percent of the state's population but about 30 percent of those in prison.

Tent camps are a common sight across Los Angeles. Bethany Mollenkof for The New York Times

Inmates return to the world with a criminal record that gets in the way of getting a job or securing a mortgage or lease on an apartment.

Advocates for the homeless have been pushing state and local officials to spend more on re-entry programs to stop the revolving door between prison cells and homeless camps.

“If you are a felon, you can’t get a good job,” said Marlon Jackson, 44, who is homeless in South L.A.

Mr. Jackson does not have a felony record, but many of his friends do. “Most black people I have been around all my life, all my friends, have felonies,” he said. “Everybody I grew up with is either dead or in jail or they are out of jail with felonies.”

From the Streets to Supportive Housing

At Mr. Wynn’s lowest point he was living in his car, dealing with hypertension and heart problems, in addition to his persistent depression. His weight dropped from 190 pounds to 130 pounds on his six-foot-three-inch frame.

“I didn’t want to commit suicide, but I wanted to die,” he said.

He was eventually accepted into a residential program at the Weingart Center on Skid Row, which served as a bridge between the streets and a new apartment. He took part in group therapy, and started to feel less alone.

“There’s a lot of depressed black men in Los Angeles,” he said.

For a few months now, after being on the streets for almost three years, Mr. Wynn has lived in a small one-bedroom apartment provided by the county. He has a new dream: to learn sign language so that he can find a job working with the deaf.

But he hasn’t slept in his bed, which still has the plastic cover on it.

He calls the bedroom his “depression room” and sleeps instead on a small black couch. This is not uncommon: some formerly homeless people set up their tents inside their apartments.

Of the many losses he has experienced, one continues to torment him.