I don't think I got a story in Skid Row. I saw a lot that was news to me, and a few things that with a little more depth would be worth writing on, but all I know about it is from a day tour and the odd-numbered pages of the 'Report Card on Homelessness in Los Angeles County,' the evens having been lost in photocopying. I didn't even get around to talking to someone on the street. We've been invited to use the first person, and I'm going to take advantage of that----I'd like to stress that I haven't done the research or the reporting it would take to write with authority about homelessness, or anything you couldn't pick up by browsing through The Soloist (which, in the interests of full disclose, I haven't). What I am going to try to do is to get down some working notes on the way Skid Row works, as best as I know about it, and then to see if I can find anything in there from which a story can be made. They're incomplete, but they should represent both what I know about it, and how much I don't.
How to get there:
The crucial fact about Skid Row is that it is the site of almost all of Los Angeles County's provision for the homeless. People, therefore, come from all over the county and beyond--the Rev. Andrew Bales, head of the Union Rescue Mission, relates stories of people being brought by family from as far as Fresno, seeking the shelter and treatment offered by the area's missions. Famously, as the Los Angeles Times as reported, hospitals as far away as Pomona and Anaheim have brought patients who have nowhere else to go there on release. Bales recounted also stories of elderly people being evicted from apartments in Monrovia and the Palisades calling the shelter, looking for a place to stay. What this means, to my mind, is that we need to refine our understanding of what it means when we describe Skid Row as 'rock bottom'--while it almost certainly represents the worst point in the lives of many people who wind up there, it is not necessarily somewhere one finds oneself after a period of homelessness elsewhere. Rather, it is probably the most reasonable place to go at once for people thrust unexpectedly into homelessness; it is the place where one stands the best change of finding shelter and a meal.
The population of Skid Row comprises, in addition to addicts and the insane, families (the LA County Report Card on Homelessness estimates that 25% of homeless people in the county were living in families during 2007, though, while it is clearly significant, I do not have a number for Skid Row), elderly people whose social security payments and pensions do not provide enough for their rent, and employed people who have been unable to pay their rent during a period of unemployment. 60-75% of families are not drug users, according to Scott Chamberlain, the Union Rescue Mission official responsible for women and families, Some, especially of the last category, are able to make limited stays, knowing when they come when they will be able to afford a new home. The presence of women and children is a relatively recent fact, dated to the early 1990s by most observers, and one which the area's institutions are still coming to terms with. The Union Rescue Mission, and others in the area, are still in the process of establishing procedures and facilities for families.
There are also, however, addicts and criminals, but this population is not unmixed either. Some, according to Bales, do in fact have homes. For dealers and pimps, the attraction of Skid Row is obvious--it is perhaps the city's greatest concentration of their clients, and thus the place in which it is easiest to operate with impunity. By all accounts, matters have improved in the past few years, but according to Lt. Richard Thomas of the LAPD, in charge of the Safer City Initiate intended to clean up the area, in 2005 it was not uncommon to see someone lighting a crack pipe in plain view of a patrol car. Some, as well, seem to come to the area by choice as customers. Estella Lopez, director of the area's business association, describes it as 'a place to get laid and get high.' The story told by Alex Carnejo, an ex-addict employed by the Union Rescue Mission, seems to confirm this. Both he and his father left the area for a time, and returned seeking drugs.
Homelessness on Skid Row:
Out of Skid Row's estimated current population of 6,000-7,000, only about 500 are believed to be 'shelter-resistant' by the LAPD. These, most probably those most afflicted by mental disorder, are unwilling to spend time in shelters. Bales describes some who, convinced to spend the night in a shelter, insist on taking a cot in the overflow rooms near the Mission's entrance so as to be near a way out. Single women, according to Chamberlain, are especially likely to be shelter-resistant, mistrustful of attempts to help them. 80-90% of homeless women report having faced violent or sexual abuse; many say they went on the street in order to escape abusive homes.
Of the remaining population,
Getting off the street:
How to get there:
The crucial fact about Skid Row is that it is the site of almost all of Los Angeles County's provision for the homeless. People, therefore, come from all over the county and beyond--the Rev. Andrew Bales, head of the Union Rescue Mission, relates stories of people being brought by family from as far as Fresno, seeking the shelter and treatment offered by the area's missions. Famously, as the Los Angeles Times as reported, hospitals as far away as Pomona and Anaheim have brought patients who have nowhere else to go there on release. Bales recounted also stories of elderly people being evicted from apartments in Monrovia and the Palisades calling the shelter, looking for a place to stay. What this means, to my mind, is that we need to refine our understanding of what it means when we describe Skid Row as 'rock bottom'--while it almost certainly represents the worst point in the lives of many people who wind up there, it is not necessarily somewhere one finds oneself after a period of homelessness elsewhere. Rather, it is probably the most reasonable place to go at once for people thrust unexpectedly into homelessness; it is the place where one stands the best change of finding shelter and a meal.
The population of Skid Row comprises, in addition to addicts and the insane, families (the LA County Report Card on Homelessness estimates that 25% of homeless people in the county were living in families during 2007, though, while it is clearly significant, I do not have a number for Skid Row), elderly people whose social security payments and pensions do not provide enough for their rent, and employed people who have been unable to pay their rent during a period of unemployment. 60-75% of families are not drug users, according to Scott Chamberlain, the Union Rescue Mission official responsible for women and families, Some, especially of the last category, are able to make limited stays, knowing when they come when they will be able to afford a new home. The presence of women and children is a relatively recent fact, dated to the early 1990s by most observers, and one which the area's institutions are still coming to terms with. The Union Rescue Mission, and others in the area, are still in the process of establishing procedures and facilities for families.
There are also, however, addicts and criminals, but this population is not unmixed either. Some, according to Bales, do in fact have homes. For dealers and pimps, the attraction of Skid Row is obvious--it is perhaps the city's greatest concentration of their clients, and thus the place in which it is easiest to operate with impunity. By all accounts, matters have improved in the past few years, but according to Lt. Richard Thomas of the LAPD, in charge of the Safer City Initiate intended to clean up the area, in 2005 it was not uncommon to see someone lighting a crack pipe in plain view of a patrol car. Some, as well, seem to come to the area by choice as customers. Estella Lopez, director of the area's business association, describes it as 'a place to get laid and get high.' The story told by Alex Carnejo, an ex-addict employed by the Union Rescue Mission, seems to confirm this. Both he and his father left the area for a time, and returned seeking drugs.
Homelessness on Skid Row:
Out of Skid Row's estimated current population of 6,000-7,000, only about 500 are believed to be 'shelter-resistant' by the LAPD. These, most probably those most afflicted by mental disorder, are unwilling to spend time in shelters. Bales describes some who, convinced to spend the night in a shelter, insist on taking a cot in the overflow rooms near the Mission's entrance so as to be near a way out. Single women, according to Chamberlain, are especially likely to be shelter-resistant, mistrustful of attempts to help them. 80-90% of homeless women report having faced violent or sexual abuse; many say they went on the street in order to escape abusive homes.
Of the remaining population,
Getting off the street:
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