Southern California is an epicenter for crowded housing: Out of the most heavily crowded 1% of census tracts across the country, more than half are in Los Angeles and Orange counties, a Times statistical analysis found.
Sixteen-year-old Monica buried her face in a pillow, trying to rest for school the next day, as the clock ticked past 11 p.m.
Sleep was a battle in the tiny apartment. Hunched at the other end of the family’s only mattress, two of her brothers played a video game while a third lounged next to her, watching virtual soccer players skitter on screen. Her 2-year-old niece toddled barefoot near the door, toying with a pile of pennies.
In all, seven people live in this wedge of space in Historic South-Central, including Monica’s mother and the mother of the little girl — the longtime girlfriend of one of her brothers. They squeeze into an apartment roughly the size of a two-car garage, sharing a bathroom, a small kitchen and one common room.
“We’re not comfortable,” Monica’s mother, Josefina Cano, said in Spanish. “But what can we do? It’s better than being on the street.”
Cano and her family live in one of the most crowded neighborhoods in the country. Nearly 45% of the homes there are considered “crowded” — having more than one person per room, excluding bathrooms, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data spanning 2008 to 2012. Almost one home in six is severely crowded, with more than two people per room.
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