More than 4,000 people are experiencing homelessness in the Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles. As LA Times senior writer Doug Smith wrote, Skid Row is an intense environment, with half-clothed people wandering around, open drug use, and crime. Now, a wave of migrant families and their children are being shipped there from Texas, landing them in dangerous conditions without shelter. Smith joined Lisa McRee on "LA Times Today" with more on the children of Skid Row. 

Smith spent time with four families who migrated to the United States from South America. They entered the country in Texas, then were brought to LA by a charity to seek help at the Union Rescue Mission. But they soon ended up on the street.

"Because of the flow of migrants through Texas and being transported here, Union Rescue Mission told me that they have 400 families living there, and 7% of them are migrants. And it's putting a stress on their finances. So in December, they instituted what they call a program fee where they asked families living there to contribute to their stay. After 90 days, the families who couldn't [pay] could choose to leave. They were allowed to do volunteer work, but [the families Smith spoke to] chose to leave and they ended up on tents in Skid Row," Smith explained. 

The families include several small children, some too young to go to school. Smith spoke about how the children are cared for.

"There's an elementary school in Skid row, and the kids go to that elementary school in the day. Two of them were too young, and they actually spent the day with their mother, who had a cart full of strawberries. And she was selling those in a sort of outdoor market on Los Angeles Street," Smith said. "And when they come home, they play in the street. The street is their playground. And they have food because Urban Alchemy, an outreach organization, has a stand right next to where they are, and they provide food to people.”

Although life on Skid Row is not easy, Smith said the families left worse conditions behind in their home countries. 

"Some of them came from Honduras, where they're [part of] Indigenous groups and they're under oppression there. And some of them were in situations where they were asked by gangs to pay protection fees. They thought their lives were in danger. They're not happy about the situation here, but their lives aren't in danger," he explained.

Smith shared that some of the families he wrote about are back at the mission and off the streets, but others may soon take their place. 

Watch the full interview above.

Watch "LA Times Today" at 7 and 10 p.m. Monday through Friday on Spectrum News 1 and the Spectrum News app.