Jae C. Hong Photography

Andrew Hudson injects himself with heroin next to an angel statue in the Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles. "It's miserable quitting or trying - trying anything," said Hudson. Skid Row is home to thousands of chronically homeless people on the edge of the downtown. No one shares the same story of how they ended up in the center of poverty and despair. The streets are ruled by drugs day and night. Help exists, but too many turn to drugs to cope with their problems.

 Homeless addicts Brandice Josey, left, uses a straw to blow a puff of fentanyl smoke into the mouth of Ryan Smith, who is high on the drug, in Los Angeles, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022.

A homeless man injects a Narcan nasal spray into the nose of a female addict who appears to be overdosed in Los Angeles, Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022. For too many people strung out on the drug, the sleep that follows a fentanyl hit is permanent. The highly addictive and potentially lethal drug has become a scourge across America and is taking a toll on the growing number of people living on the streets of Los Angeles.

Forensic assistant Laurentiu Bigu left, and investigator Ryan Parraz from the Los Angeles County coroner's office covers the body of a homeless man found dead on a sidewalk in Los Angeles. The 60-year-old man died from the effects of methamphetamine, according to his autopsy report. Nearly 2,000 homeless people died in the city from April 2020 to March 2021, a 56% increase from the previous year, according to a report released by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Overdose was the leading cause of death, killing more than 700.

David Hernandez, a 62-year-old homeless man, shuts the flap after crawling into his makeshift bed made with cardboard boxes, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022, in Los Angeles. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declared a state of emergency Monday to grapple with the city's out-of-control homeless crisis, bidding to move swiftly to get thousands of unhoused people off her city's streets.

Victoria Filipy, who lives in a small homeless RV encampment with her dogs, fills water bottles from a fire hydrant in Los Angeles. 

Tucked in a sleeping bag, Danny, a 60-year-old homeless man who only gave his first name, lies on an overpass above the 101 Freeway, one of the nation's busiest freeways in Los Angeles. Although he never feels safe sleeping on the street, Danny said the noise from the freeway doesn't bother him much. "You get used to it after a while."

Church personnel inspect damage inside the Odesa Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa, Ukraine, Sunday, July 23, 2023, following Russian missile attacks. 

A dove painted by artist TvBoy adorns the wall of a building damaged by Russian shelling attacks in Irpin, Ukraine, Friday, July 7, 2023.

 Two women with mock AK-47 rifles participate in firearms training for civilians in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, July 11, 2023. 

 Blind Soldiers Flanked by trainers, Denys Abdulin, a former Ukrainian soldier blinded in the war, learns to use a kitchen knife during a cooking class at a rehabilitation center designed for soldiers who lost their vision on the battlefield, near Rivne, Ukraine, Friday, July 21, 2023. Over the course of several weeks, the veterans, accompanied by their families, reside at the rehabilitation center. Most receive their first canes here, take their first walks around urban and natural environments without assistance, and learn to operate programs on phones and computers. 

A trainer holds out his arm to prevent Ivan Soroka, a former Ukrainian soldier blinded in the war, from colliding with a pole while helping him navigate the streets of Rivne, Ukraine, Friday, July 21, 2023, as part of training at a rehabilitation center designed for soldiers who lost their vision on the battlefield. 

A cemetery is lit by the evening sunlight near Lviv, Ukraine, Sunday, July 2, 2023. 

Inmate firefighters walk along Highway 120 after a burnout operation as firefighters continue to battle the Rim Fire near Yosemite National Park, Calif.

A firefighter carries a water hose as a large painting saved from a wildfire is propped against an SUV in the Bel Air district of Los Angeles. 

Smoke rises from the Wallow Fire in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, Ariz.

Virus Outbreak Home Front Romelia Navarro, 64, sobs while sitting at the bedside of her dying husband, Antonio, as his heart rate drops to zero in a COVID-19 unit at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., Friday, July 31, 2020. Antonio was nurse Michel Younkin's first COVID-19 patient to pass on her watch. 

Chaplain Kevin Deegan prays for COVID-19 patient Pedro Basulto while on a video call with the patient's daughter, Grace, at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills section of Los Angeles, Thursday, Nov. 19, 2020. "These video calls have been a lifeline for families," said Deegan. "It can be emotionally exhausting and very draining, but it also an honor to be a bridge for the family."

Registered nurse Bryan Hofilena attaches "COVID Patient" stickers on a body bag of a patient who died of coronavirus at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Los Angeles. Hospitals across the country are struggling to cope with burnout among doctors, nurses, and other workers, already buffeted by a crush of patients from the ongoing surge of the COVID-19 delta variant and now bracing for the fallout of another highly transmissible mutation.

Farm worker Jorge Americano receives the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on his arm, which bears a tattoo depicting Jesus, at Tudor Ranch in Mecca, Calif.

In this photo created with an in-camera multiple exposure, registered nurse Verlin Frazier, part of a group of nurses who had been treating coronavirus patients in an intensive care unit, stands for a photo in front of a patient board in the empty COVID-19 ICU at Providence Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, Calif.

In this photo created with an in-camera multiple exposure, registered nurse Debbie Wooters, part of a group of nurses who had been treating coronavirus patients in an intensive care unit, holds a group picture taken with her fellow nurses in the empty COVID-19 ICU at Providence Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, Calif.

Center lane lines are partially visible along the lava-covered road in the Leilani Estates subdivision near Pahoa, Hawaii. 

Lava erupts from fissures in the Leilani Estates subdivision near Pahoa, Hawaii. 

A woman, who declined to give her name, is hugged by her husband as they chat between the border fence separating Nogales, Ariz., and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. 

Asylum Ban Mexico Two migrants sleep in their bunk bed at the San Juan Bosco migrant shelter in Nogales, Mexico, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. Many migrants who fail interviews are deported to Nogales, a sprawling city in the Mexican state of Sonora, and end up at the shelter, where a giant fan in a former chapel offers relief from blistering summer heat. 

Wearing a Superman costume, Toly Shtapenko, of Ukraine, takes a long stride along the Hollywood Walk of Fame to impress tourists in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. While the Hollywood we see in movies is a place of glamour and beautiful celebrities, the cast of superheroes filling Hollywood Boulevard is frequently anything but. Many are people struggling to make a buck as they pursue their dream of stardom.

Reginald Jackson Superhero impersonator Reginald Jackson takes a coffee break Monday, May 15, 2017, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. While the Hollywood we see in movies is a place of glamour and beautiful celebrities, the cast of superheroes filling Hollywood Boulevard is frequently anything but. Many are people struggling to make a buck as they pursue their dream of stardom. 

Superhero impersonator Justin Harrison, left, rides a Metro train wearing a Superman costume on his way to Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. "I always go out in a costume," said Harrison. "I love seeing people happy and seeing them smile."

Seal hunter Wilbur Kuzuzuk, 53, drags a spotted seal, his only catch of the day, to the edge of the lagoon in Shishmaref, Alaska, on Oct. 4, 2022. 

Incarcerated graduate Jose Catalan poses for photos after his graduation ceremony at Folsom State Prison in Folsom, Calif., Thursday, May 25, 2023. Catalan earned his bachelor's degree in communications through the Transforming Outcomes Project at Sacramento State. 

A demonstrator sleeps inside an encampment set up by pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the UCLA campus Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Los Angeles. 

Wearing school uniforms, students at Yamano Beauty College bow to a speaker during a ceremony held to celebrate the school's 83rd-year anniversary in Tokyo. More than 1,200 students from all over Japan are attending the school to be hair stylists or makeup artists.

A waitress serves a table in protective gear in a restaurant inside the Shangri-La Hotel at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022, in Beijing. 

A man walks by angel wings used as part of a store display in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Workers clean the floor at Petco Park before a baseball game between the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers in San Diego.

In this photo taken with a drone, two surfers wade through water in Huntington Beach, Calif.

A lifeguard watches as fireworks light up the air during an Independence Day celebration in San Clemente, Calif., Monday, July 4, 2022.

A woman enters an exhibition hall at NTT Intercommunication Center in Tokyo, featuring an interactive installation artwork titled "Kinesis #3—Dissolving Field" by Hiroaki Umeda.

People stand in Rain Room, an immersive installation by the London-based artist collective Random International, during a staff preview at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles.

A car drives along the Olympic lane near the Olympic Park at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 29, 2012, in London.

South Africa's Tsholofelo Thipe prepares to compete in a women's 400-meter heat during the athletics competitions of the 2016 Summer Olympics at the Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016.

In this overexposed photo, sprinters are introduced before the men's 100-meter final as they are backdropped by empty seats at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 1, 2021, in Tokyo.

Lydia Lassila Australia's Lydia Lassila competes during the women's freestyle skiing aerials qualifying at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, at the 2014 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 14, 2014, in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia.