“There are homeless people all around my hotel. Whenever I step out of my door, I'm stepping over and around people. There are times I didn't even want to come outdoors.”

Thomas Carruthers, 60, lives in a hotel on 5th and Los Angeles Streets in Downtown Los Angeles and is a constituent of LA City Council District 14.

Carruthers says that taking care of those on the streets and the mentally ill should be the top priority for government officials because it creates an unsafe and unwelcoming environment. 

“I have been walking down the street and seen people hit in the face,” Carruthers said. “They weren't expecting it because they didn't know the people, but they just were just walking toward them and have gotten knocked down.”

Carruthers went to the polls at Hayward Apartments Tuesday to vote for challenger Gloria Molina because he believes Molina can implement changes that incumbent councilman Jose Huizar has been overlooking.

“We need new blood in there,” Carruthers said. “The people on the street need help and it seems like Mr. Huizar is more concerned about bringing back Broadway than he is about addressing the needs of these people that need help.”

Los Angeles has the second-highest number of homeless residents in the country, behind New York City. Downtown Los Angeles has the highest rate of homelessness in LA County, accounting for nearly 23 percent of the entire population in 2011, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LHSA).

Carruthers feels that those on the streets are being neglected and without any government control, are unable to create a better living situation.

“It seems as though the homeless and the mentally ill are able to just exist without any accountability,” said the LA native. “They have no responsibility to either help themselves or allow other people to help them.”

In 2013, 33 percent of the nearly 58,423 people that were homeless on any given night were found to be mentally ill and 34 percent suffered from substance abuse, according to the LHSA.

For Carruthers, whose only income is a $840 monthly Social Security check he gets because he suffers from a lung disease that blocks airflow, believes that spending over three quarters of his income on rent is worth the cost of survival.

“I live in a hotel and I'm paying way too much, but I prefer to pay more and live inside then to pay nothing and live outside,” Carruthers said. “Money would do me no good and probably only encourage me to do drugs and drink if I didn't have the responsibility of paying bills.”

Many homeless people that Carruthers knows are also receiving SSI checks, but he says they use the money on alternative items like drugs because they “don’t want to be following rules or taking orders from people.”

Several organizations, such as Project 50, which began in 2007 and helps house the homeless on Skid Row, have sprouted up throughout LA to help manage the increasing rate in the homeless population. 

Carruthers hasn’t seen much impact from their efforts, but agrees this trend needs to become more prominent in order to make a change.

“Some of the homeless have to be enticed to come up off the streets because there really is no excuse for homelessness except if you're a front for some crime,” said the 60-year-old amidst some coughs. “You're allowing some drug dealer to push drugs while you sleep in your tent.”

Regardless of the reasons for homelessness, Carruthers believes that the only way to at least attempt to make a difference is to bring a new ideology and see a different face in office after this election.

“I believe Huizar had a special interest in himself and not the constituents of this district,” Carruthers said. “I think Molina will bring some ideas that he hasn't to meet the needs of particularly this area downtown.”

Reach Staff Reporter Connor McGlynn here.