Los Angeles County. It's a sprawling metropolis, home to the second largest city in the United States,

and it's also one of its most crowded. A Times analysis found more people are squeezing into fewer

rooms in L.A. County than any other large county in America. And it's been a disaster for public health,

even before COVID-19 began to spread. It makes perfect sense when you're talking about infectious diseases,

communicable diseases. The closer people are to other people, the more time they are in that

close proximity, the easier it is for you to get spread. It's the issue at schools,

it's the issue at some of our work sites, and it's obviously the issues in many of our homes.

I'm Gustavariano. You're listening to the Times, Essential News, from the LA Times. It's Wednesday, October 19, 2022.

Today, Los Angeles for decades

advertised itself as an American Eden,

but it ignored repeated warnings

about the consequences of overcrowding on the working class.

Now, when the situation is worse than ever

and spreading, calls to fix it continue to go nowhere.

My colleagues, Brittany Mejia and Liam Dillon, just published a huge investigation on this matter.

Brittany's a feature writer Liam covers housing.

Both of Usteadis, welcome to times.

Thank you.

Thanks so much.

There's so many stories that the two of you did, great ones on issues, profiles, analysis.

Of all the people that the two of you talked to,

who especially stood out?

...