An image from Skid Row in Los Angeles

Japanese homeless youths sleeping in 24-hour Internet cafes. The latest in high-tech cardboard street "tents." A review of Yosemite International Airport's plan to donate toiletries--seized from travelers during security checks--to local shelters.

These are just a handful of the stories recently posted on LA's Homeless Blog. Founded in 2004 by Joel Roberts, the L.A.-based site was launched to "create a virtual dialogue on homelessness," he says.

"I wanted to talk about how communities deal with the issues," says Roberts, the CEO of PATH Partners, a local non-profit organization providing shelters and services. "Not only in Los Angeles, but everywhere."

His blog could easily just cover Los Angeles, which has the largest homeless population--45,000 people--in the country. But if local topics, such as the latest developments in Skid Row, a 50-block section of downtown Los Angeles where an estimated 8,000 homeless people gather every day, frequently appear on Roberts' blog, he also looks at the larger social, political and economic issues related to homelessness.

Roberts, 45, says the majority of his blogs' readers work on homelessness-related issues. He also receives email from readers like Michelle, a mother of two children living in a hotel in Santa Clarita, California.

"It is wonderful work that you do--and us homeless thank you so much," she writes. "If this city would open its eyes you would see all of the hotels /motels in this area are packed with families that have fallen on hard times... please tell me where I can go with my 2 daughters to live on an income of $720.00 a month?"