Patricia Sweeney smokes a cigarette through a small gap in her tent as her partner sleeps inside the tent in Los Angeles Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. There is no single reason why Los Angeles became a magnet for homelessness. Two contributing factors: Soaring housing prices and rents punish those with marginal incomes, and a long string of court decisions made it difficult for officials to clear encampments or relocate homeless people from parks and other public spaces. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)