Life on the streets of Los Angeles
For the residents of Broadway Place, every hour is a struggle
After leaving her friends at Broadway Place (“too much drama”), Leneace Pope moves a mattress into her tent a block away. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
A pit bull named Caesar watches over “Old Man Mike,” an occasional resident of the homeless encampment on Broadway Place. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Duanne Hardaway, 44, stands in the middle of Broadway Place. A recent cleaning sweep by the city’s sanitation department forced him to move his tent and belongings across the street. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
During a cleaning sweep by the city’s sanitation department, Big Mama and the other residents of Broadway Place had to relocate their tents and possessions across the street in order to give crews access to their sidewalk. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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Duanne Hardaway, who was known on the street as X, as in extra large, steps outside his tent on Broadway Place. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Before Big Mama could move into housing, outreach workers from a homeless services agency had her sign countless forms verifying her background, income and status. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Despite living in a tent among the homeless encampments near Broadway Place, Leneace Pope slept on a large mattress that needed to be moved whenever she moved. Friends would often help. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Sitting outside her tent on Broadway Place, Big Mama hands a rose to a little girl in a stroller. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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Top Shelf takes a break from moving her tent and belongings across the street before a cleaning sweep by the city’s sanitation department. Coco, one of the dogs of the encampment on Broadway Place, never wandered far. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Keith Gaston sits outside his tent after hearing the news he will be moving from the street into his own apartment. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Leneace Pope finished moving her tent and possession a block away from Broadway Place just as night was falling. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Duanne Hardaway keeps an eye out for himself and his neighbors, especially after some of the residents of the encampment began to move into their new apartments. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Francine Orr was a staff photojournalist for the Los Angeles Times from 2000-24. She is currently a Knight fellow at the Graduate School of Visual Communication at Ohio University. Previously, she was a staff photographer at the Kansas City Star. Orr served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Yap, Federated States of Micronesia. While there, she learned how to be a quiet observer and gained a love for stories. She was raised in Colorado and earned bachelor’s degrees in both history and art from the University of Saint Mary. In 2022, Orr received the coveted Dart Award for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma and the National Headliner Award. She also won the 2020 Meyer “Mike” Berger and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature photography in 2012.
