Life on the streets of L.A.

"It is a crisis in LA, and I don't think people realise the magnitude of it," said John Kump, an outreach programme manager at the charity People Assisting the Homeless (PATH).

Los Angeles' homeless population is estimated at about 44,000, with many of them concentrated in a bleak and chaotic square-mile patch of downtown known as Skid Row.

The others can be seen across the sprawling metropolis of some 10 million people, sheltering under highway overpasses and on vacant lots in ragged tent encampments, and in cars and campers lining streets.

Victor Augustine, 53, has been homeless for two years and sleeps in his Cadillac car at a homeless motorhome and tent encampment near LAX airport. Victor recently found work as a part-time security guard.

The number of makeshift tents and vehicles used by the homeless has shot up by 85 percent in just the last two years to 9,535, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, an independent agency set up by the city and the county.

Mayor Eric Garcetti proposed in September spending $100 million to combat the problem. But he stopped short of declaring a state of emergency that would lift barriers to housing people, or calling on the governor and federal government for funding.

The last two El Ninos, in the winters of 1982-83 and 1997-98, each walloped Los Angeles with more than 75 cm of rain - double the amount that the city normally receives each year - according to William Patzert, a climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena.

Gary Blasi, professor of law emeritus at UCLA, wrote in a Los Angeles Times op-ed article last month that many homeless people could die if a state of emergency is not declared that could ensure some short-term housing solutions.

The homeless desperately need pallets to raise their tents off the sidewalks, he wrote, as well as heavy-duty tarpaulins, toilets, trash collection, and portable showers.

For the thousands in Los Angeles who live in their cars, they may have a roof of sorts over their heads, but basic needs go unmet.

Pamela Polk, 56, became homeless a few months ago when she was evicted from her apartment. She had to borrow money from a friend to buy a motorhome.

“It’s horrible living here. Matter of fact, I’m sick of this. I can cook but it’s not like being in your place. I can’t take a bath. I have to go places to take a bath,” she said.

Retired trucker Samuel Cole, 85, has lived in a camper for the past two years after his landlord raised the rent by $100. Vandals broke his generator, so he no longer has electricity. Like so many others, he said that a lack of running water is one of his biggest problems.

"I just have to wash off best I can," Cole said. "Very difficult."