Squatting is illegal, but authorities had long tolerated it, perhaps because housing is so hard to come by in this city of 12 million and it was preferable to having more people living on the streets. The city estimates that people are squatting in about 70 buildings in the downtown area, with untold hundreds of other buildings occupied throughout the rest of the city.

Source: Los Angeles Times June 04, 2018 09:56 UTC