We'll call him Paul, because that’s not his real name—at least according to his Lyft profile. He picked me up on Main St. and 5th in downtown Los Angeles, just a few blocks from Skid Row. According to Wikipedia, this area hosts one of the largest stable populations of homeless people in the U.S., estimated at over 4,400. According to Paul, it also houses freshly-released prisoners in subsidised accommodation. You can tell the difference, he said—they look clean, unlike their dirt-encrusted neighbours. I had been waiting obliviously outside a shelter where many of them stayed, not very smart according to Paul, but I was okay since it was the start of the month. The ex-cons had just received their government allowance and were busy organising drugs or doing drugs, or both. But come evening, or especially weekends near the end of the month, and I wouldn’t want to be there.