Hollywood star's Twitter post highlights homelessness crisis in U.S.

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- A video highlighting California's homeless crisis shared by Hollywood actress and political activist Susan Sarandon on Twitter has received over 8,000 replies on twitter as of Wednesday.

Sarandon, a 76-year-old recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, reposted the video from homelessness activist Thomas Wolf, which showed streets in Oakland lined with homeless people's tents and trash.

After Sarandon shared the video, in two days, tens of thousands of twitter users retweeted it or replied by more videos focusing on homeless people's encampments in many U.S. cities, such as Oakland and Los Angeles.

Benny Johnson, a right-wing TV host posted a similar video shot in Los Angeles, the second populous city in the county, saying: "I just drove through downtown L.A. What I saw shocked me to the core. 3rd world conditions on *every* block. Tent cities. Filth. Drugs. People digging through, living in and eating trash. Broken lives everywhere."

A report released by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority last month said 69,144 people were estimated homeless in Los Angeles County, a 4.1-percent rise from 2020.

As a left-wing social and political activist, Sarandon has long been outspoken about homelessness. In 2015, she made a documentary Storied Streets, focusing on the homelessness crisis in the country.

In an interview posted on Youtube, Sarandon said the idea that the homeless were all just drug addicts was totally wrong.

"Actually the leading cause of homelessness is a lack of affordable housing, the second is a lack of a living wage, the third is health care, the fourth is domestic violence, then you have all these veterans coming back, then you have mental health issues which of course if you are on the street chronically for a year and a half, that usually is really serious," the actress said.