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Comment by seanmcdirmid | Hacker News Reader

Spotted the guy whose never been to downtown LA. It is much worse down south considering the weather is much better.

But really, only Alaska is relatively immune from this problem given that they just give homeless people a bus ticket to LA when winter hits.

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Homelessness in Anchorage (Alaska) is a real issue. There are hundreds of chronically homeless, and not enough shelter beds to go around. Many winters 10+ people freeze to death on the streets.

There aren't any regularly operated buses from Anchorage to the rest of the US, and I'm fairly certain there aren't any homeless deportation programs (which would probably involve flying people commercially - there is a ferry, but its not really cheaper).

So my mom mentioned this to me, so it's only anecdata, while she hadn't lived in anchorage since the 60s, my info could be a bit out of date.

I once accidentally stumbled into a street downtown LA in my early 20s. It was full of druggies and gangsters. I never felt so scared of my safety before. I definitely felt eyes staring a me like I didn't belong there.

I have travelled to many countries where some places are considered dangerous for travellers. And never have I been more afraid than that day.

I took a grey hound as a kid across country and made the mistake of getting out at LA to look around. It felt like the walking dead at the time! Was aggressively pan handled, lost five bucks, came out of it ok. But SF has nothing on LA.

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