Diana Gonzalez lives in an encampment of grimy tents and overstuffed shopping carts in an alley less than five kilometres from Disneyland. Her life is a world apart from the fairy tales of the Happiest Place on Earth.
For Gonzalez, mundane details such as the hours of the public restrooms at the community park down the street are obsessions necessary for survival.
“You’ve gotta smell sometimes because it’s so cold,” Gonzalez said, shivering in the chilly night air. “Where are you gonna shower if the bathrooms are closed? Where are you going to go the bathroom? Where are we supposed to go?”
A recently formed interfaith group called the Poverty Task Force hopes to answer those questions as it fights homelessness in Anaheim, a city that is quietly wrestling with a street population rarely seen by the millions of tourists who flock to Disney’s resort each year.
