by Los Angeles, California — For nearly five months, Susan Ercolino says she lived in constant fear around MacArthur Park, rarely sleeping and never feeling safe. Nights were spent half-awake, listening for footsteps and scanning the darkness, because closing her eyes could mean waking up robbed, beaten, or worse.
Survival, she says, became more important than exhaustion.
Life Inside a Relentless Open-Air Drug Market
Ercolino describes the park as a place that never slows down. During the day, she says, it was filled with drug deals, arguments, and people slumped unconscious on the grass. At night, the danger intensified.
“It’s like the true living hell,” she said.
She recalls fentanyl, meth, and pills circulating constantly—stronger and more unpredictable than anything she had encountered before. Overdoses were common. Narcan reversals became routine. Sirens blended into the background.
Violence, she says, was simply expected.
Addiction and the Rehab Pipeline
Ercolino’s struggle with addiction did not begin in California. She says she spent nearly a decade in and out of treatment, including one stretch where she stayed sober for five years. But relapses followed.
While struggling in Baltimore with her fiancé David, the father of her twins, she says a man offered what sounded like help: a trip to California and placement in rehab. She later learned the arrangement was part of a practice known as body brokering, where patients are moved through facilities for insurance billing rather than recovery.
“I was brokered,” she said. “We were brokered.”
When her insurance was terminated after alleged fraud was flagged, she says she was discharged with nowhere to go—ending up at MacArthur Park.
Overdoses, Violence, and Constant Fear
At first, Ercolino tried to survive indoors, paying for hotel rooms until the money ran out. On the streets, addiction tightened its grip. She says the fentanyl she encountered in Los Angeles was far more dangerous than what she knew back East.
“I’d never overdosed until I went to California,” she said.
She says she witnessed repeated stabbings and overdoses and often stepped in to help. Near Sixth Street and Alvarado, she recalls pressing towels against a stabbed man’s chest while people tried to steal from him as he bled. She says he was pronounced dead for 13 minutes before being revived.
Being separated from David for a week made things worse. As a woman alone, she says she barely slept at all.
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She says no city outreach workers ever offered her help.
A Way Out Through One Conversation
Her escape didn’t come from a program, she says—it came from people.
After breaking down in front of a police officer and saying, “I’m ready to go home,” the officer tried to connect her with Union Station Homeless Services. When that failed, he contacted John Alle, a local landlord known for personally funding trips to help people leave the streets.
The first attempt fell apart at Los Angeles International Airport when Ercolino realized she had no ID. After questioning by Transportation Security Administration, her gate closed before she could board.
She returned to MacArthur Park for two more weeks, convinced she might never get out.
A Second Chance — and a Flight Home
Eventually, Ercolino checked herself into a hospital for five days to stabilize. She then called Alle again. He bought her another ticket.
This time, she arrived hours early, cleared security, and boarded the plane.
She made it out.
In Alabama, her sister Rebecca picked her up at the airport. Seeing her family again, Ercolino says, brought overwhelming relief.
“I’m lucky I’m breathing still,” she said.
Home for the Holidays — and Hope for the Future
Now home for Christmas, Ercolino says she is clean, clearheaded, and finally able to rest. Simple things—sleeping through the night, sitting on a couch without scanning the room—feel extraordinary.
Her goal, she says, has never changed: to stay sober and be a good mother to her twins.
“I just want to do better—and stay alive,” she said.
What are your thoughts on stories like this, and what more should cities do to help people escape life on the streets? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
