Downtown LA slammed as 'third world' as shocking video shows homeless camped out on trash-covered sidewalks after setting FIRE in middle of the road - with Elon Musk summing up eyesore in one word: 'Wow'

Downtown Los Angeles has been described as 'third world' after shocking footage revealed a homeless encampment with open fires in the street and trash-covered sidewalks.

The startling video, posted to X by Fox News reporter Bill Melugin, shows dozens of homeless people sitting and standing on filthy sidewalks on the corner of San Pedro Street and 6th Street in the Skid Row neighborhood of LA. 

Some are seen standing around an open fire in the street, just moments away from the Midnight Mission, a $17 million center for the homeless. 

Billionaire tycoon Elon Musk, who has previously been vocal on the state of California's homelessness crisis, summarized the video with one word: 'wow'.

'Gavin Newsom’s California is the richest state but its cities resemble those of Third World countries' one X user said. 

'If you didn't tell us this was LA we would think this was a city in a third-world country!' another commented.

A third added: 'Funny how the Hollywood elites are so outspoken about citizens of other countries living in 3rd world conditions but stay silent about their own backyard.' 

LA is currently home to more than 46,000 unhoused people, a 10 percent increase on the previous year, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. 

Homelessness in downtown LA in particular has exploded since the pandemic, with more than 10,000 more unhoused people on the streets since 2019. 

Since 2015 homelessness in the city has increased 70 percent. 

Services such as the Midnights Mission, whose main center stands just meters from the shocking video circulated online, have been pushed to the limits of their resources. 

The Mission serves three meals a day to those living on the streets, as well as providing services such as temporary accommodation, a barbershop, and a women's crisis center. 

In just three years female homelessness in LA has increased 55 percent, according to the organization.  

Over 90 percent of those women have experienced physical or sexual assault. 

In August it emerged that the city had resorted to sending mobile teams with oxygen cylinders to Skid Row in a desperate bid to prevent overdoses as the area becomes gripped by an opioid crisis. 

Workers from the non profit Homeless Health Care Los Angeles now patrol the streets among snaking lines of makeshift dwellings where homeless people can be seen sleeping among the few belongings they own - as others in dire health inject or smoke illicit substances. 

Los Angeles County has a budget of $609.7 million to tackle homelessness in 2023-2024, $61.8 million more than the previous year. 

The budget goes towards reducing encampments, increasing interim and permanent housing placements and ramping up mental health and substance use disorder services for people experiencing homelessness.

Despite efforts California's Governor Gavin Newsom admitted last summer that the state's homeless crisis was a 'disgrace' and pledged even more resources to tackle the issue. 

Homelessness figures across California have risen 13 percent in California during Newsom's time as governor, with government statistics showing a 6.8 per cent increase between 2019 and 2020, and a further 6 percent increase between 2020 and 2022, according to the Public Policy and Institute of California. 

'This state has not made progress in the last two decades as it relates to homelessness because housing costs are too high, our regulatory thickets are too problematic, localism has been too impactful – meaning people locally are pushing back against new housing starts and construction' Newsom told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview in June. 

However, he added that he had only been in office for four years and that was not sufficient time to 'make up for the fact that in 2005 we had a historic number of homeless under a Republican administration.'

The governor said: 'I I own this. I take responsibility for this' when confronted with California's shocking homelessness figures.

'I have a $15.3 billion homeless plan. When I got here, it was half a billion dollars. The state of California was not involved in the homeless issue. We got involved.

He added: 'We're holding cities and counties accountable. I'm suing cities that are not producing housing. We actually have a 15-year high in new housing starts in the state of California. We're actually seeing programs produce real results, but I want accountability.'

Newsom acknowledged that businesses were leaving and the state's cities were plagued with safety issues but insisted: 'I love this state. I don't like what's happening with encampments, I don't like what's happening to streets and sidewalks.'