As you enter downtown LA and its scenic skyline, it gives the impression of a metropolitan city busy with prosperity and wealth. However, if you look down toward the streets of this same city you can smell the stench of feces and urine wafting through the air. It is so strong that it will make you nauseated. Amidst the famous wholesale district markets lies a city within a city that resembles that of a third-world country. You have found yourself in what is known as “Skid Row”. Twenty years ago, this area was contained to four city blocks and today, due to continued neglect, it has expanded its borders across the city.
The problem on Skid Row is getting worse. The homelessness problem is being ignored by the city and swept under the rug by the mayor. It falls to the people who work diligently to care for these marginalized community members by distributing food and clothes to those living in tents on the streets of Los Angeles. We hand out raincoats and ponchos to help people brave the elements and blankets to keep them warm on the long harsh nights.
Police terror is imposed on this community through harassment: the tearing down of encampments and the over-policing of the unhoused who are trying to survive. Law enforcement has deemed this community a nuisance, forcing people off sidewalks and out of communal areas. Many who speak up for themselves or show resistance are arrested.
Some folks who find their way beyond homelessness return to the community as advocates in the Department of Health Services, which assists people with placement in shelters and turn-key housing as well as referrals for other needed resources. Some of the unhoused population take advantage of these resources, others choose to remain in the streets feeling safer within the communities they have built for themselves. The challenge here is not only how can we get folks off the streets and into homes, it is the larger systemic issues of poverty in which most Black and brown families in Los Angeles are at threat of everyday. The majority of families are living one paycheck away from homelessness, and as rent and groceries increase in price the problem will only continue to rise.
My name is Ajamu Watu. I’m a resident in the downtown Los Angeles area, and will be covering all the many stories of Skid Row, from the streets and tents to the housing programs and SROs.