'It's a perfect storm': homeless spike in rural California linked to Silicon Valley

The heartland best known for supplying nearly 25% of America's food is experiencing a rise in homelessness that can be traced in part to the tech boom

At first glance, the rusted metal pens in the central California town of Patterson look like an open-air prison block. But for Devani Riggs, "the cages", abandoned since the days they were used to store the bounty of the self-proclaimed apricot capital of the world, play a very different role.

"This one was mine. That one was Patty and Pete," said Riggs, a 3o-year-old homeless woman, adding that dozens of people had slept in the cramped enclosures.