“Taking Back The Streets of Skid Row”?

The Los Angeles Downtown News reports today on a new community movement where local residents and “stakeholders” in Central City East (where L.A.’s Skid Row is located) have decided to walk together in the evenings in Skid Row. Click here to read article.

The idea is to show that there are also positive elements in this growing community. In other words, don’t let the negative elements—drugs and crime—overwhelm this neighborhood.

We all know what Skid Row is… it is home to a large homeless population in downtown Los Angeles. So instilling into this neighborhood a positive monthly event—like walking the streets of Skid Row—is a good thing.

Of course, this alone won’t solve the problem of homelessness there. But perhaps it might motivate a community that includes local businesses, new loft owners, and city hall, to actually do more.

Walking is a good start. But the path to end homelessness in Skid Row also includes more housing, services that deal with mental health and substance abuse, and an empowered and educated law enforcement response that is able to help those who are truly homeless access services and also able to deal with those other people who are on the streets causing trouble.

I wrote an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times in May of 2002 that promoted a response that I call: “Clean Streets, Not Mean Streets”. Click here to read Op-Ed. Let’s give a community the right to have safe and clean streets, but let’s make sure those who are living on the streets have access to shelter, housing, and services (so that our response is not “mean”.)