Will a Newly Highlighted Skid Row Encourage Change, Or Just More Of The Same?

With the recent L.A. homeless beatings garnering national attention, and the incredible increase of high-end loft dwellings being built in downtown, more and more people are talking about L.A.’s infamous “skid row.”

Carla Rivera, a Los Angeles Times writer, published an article today about skid row. It’s titled, “Near Downtown’s Glitter Lies a Civic Problem.” Click here for article (you need to be registered for the LA Times site.) She answers some basic questions: Where is skid row? Who lives on skid row? What is the history of skid row? How has skid row changed? Why is it called skid row?

She quotes local skid row “expert”, Don Spivack, who is the deputy administrator of the Community Redevelopment Agency.

Her main point is found in the fourth paragraph:

“…the future of skid row looms as a huge question mark.”

There are other pertinent questions, however, that need to be addressed in order to solve this sad and embarrassing state of our city:

Where are these people (who live on the streets of skid row) coming from now? Carla has given us the history, but what about today’s skid row residents? Are they coming from the jails, a failed mental health system, being pushed out of existing low-income housing for the sake of high-end lofts, other areas of the county, of the country—all of the above?

If this is not a new phenomenon, why are we letting this persist for so long? Have we given up on this problem, these people? Are we in a state of “tolerating” this?

What are the solutions?

* Why don’t we use Chief Bratton’s strategy of policing where he finds the criminal hot spots and blanket those areas with resources—this is certainly a homeless hot spot, why don’t we blanket this area with resources?
* Why don’t we stop the influx of people entering skid row?
* Why don’t we allow the police to deal with the criminal element?
* Why don’t we provide enough permanent supportive housing for these people?

There are a lot more questions. We need to start asking questions that look toward the future—with solutions—rather than questions that ask about the past…