EDITORIAL POVERTY CAPITAL L.A. POLICIES INFLATE THE CITY'S MISERY INDEX.

WHILE the latest numbers reflect increasing poverty nationwide, nowhere is the problem more severe or pronounced than in Los Angeles.

And that's no accident.

Los Angeles is America's poverty capital. The fault lies in a steady stream of poorly conceived policies and unenforced laws that have effectively subsidized destitution for decades. The collective result is outrageous housing prices, an impoverished job market and overwhelmed public schools, jails and hospitals.

Consider the data: Nationally, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 12.5 percent of the nation's residents live in poverty. In California, that figure jumps to 13.4 percent. It's 16.4 percent for L.A. County.

And in the City of Angels, it's an astonishing 20.1 percent - more than one in five residents. Los Angeles' poverty rate is 62 percent higher than the nation at large. Why?

Let us count the ways:

--Dreadful business policies - including a complicated and punitive tax scheme that City Hall refuses to fix - that drive good jobs out of town.

--Unenforced labor laws that allow sweatshops to proliferate.

--Widely ignored housing laws that give free rein to slumlords.

--Authorities turning a blind eye to the uninsured and unlicensed drivers on our roads.

--City Hall's failure to confront L.A.'s gang problem.

Those are just for starters.

The unspoken cause of much of the city's poverty is illegal immigration, as three-fourths of the state's poor children come from immigrant families. For decades, the federal government has failed to rationalize immigration laws, a problem that disproportionately affects California.

But while the fault for our dysfunctional immigration system belongs to Washington, the problem has been exacerbated by local policies that have made L.A. an asylum for economic refugees. This is the city that refuses even to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, and will not deport known gang members.

The result of these ``compassionate'' policies is anything but compassionate. Schools cannot cope with the needs of the children, and medical facilities and social service agencies cannot meet the needs of families.

Unsafe streets, low-paying jobs, overcrowded and substandard housing - these don't do the poor any favors, and worsening poverty doesn't make a city better.