Some real estate companies are hiring unhoused people to act as security guards for empty homes on sale

An estimated 66,000 people in Los Angeles are homeless. The numbers have been going up year after year, as housing prices also drastically increase. As these dual crises spiral out of control, some real estate companies have found a way to take advantage of both. They’re using homeless people to sit in their vacant properties — as a form of cheap security while they try to sell them. Writer Francesca Mari looked into this for a story in this week’s issue of The New Yorker.