Skid Row

Skid Row, Los Angeles describes a 50-square-block section of downtown between 3rd & 7th Streets to the North and South and Alameda & Main Streets to the East and West where 7,000 – 8,000 homeless “reside”.

Known once as an agricultural hub, it is now considered “the homeless capital of the world.” It began to earn this title in the 1870s when railroads were introduced and a station was built just blocks away from Skid Row’s center.

With railroads came the industrialization of agriculture. Work was seasonal and short-term, and therefore, so were the workers. Hotels, bars and brothels popped up in the area to entertain and support the single, adult male population stepping off at the railroad station and working for brief bursts throughout the year (and homeless & jobless the other months).

In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, Los Angeles became a kind of promise land for the millions of unemployed. Many rode the railroads right to the Skid Row area to find there was no work in Los Angeles either. According to the Chamber of Commerce, these “hobos” are the base of the elderly population currently residing in the area.

Then, in the 1960s, the population of Skid Row changed from the unemployed and the temporary worker to Vietnam Vets who returned from war drug-addicted, alcoholic, and traumatized. Unable to subsist in society, they retreated to Skid Row where local missions could provide for them without judgment.

And now, in the current recession, the population of Skid Row has changed once again. Now, adult, single males are not the only ones you’ll see on the streets. Instead, single parents (mostly women) and children are growing in number on Skid Row as they lose their homes and come to take advantage of the facilities and services designed to help them get back on their feet by providing them with housing, food, temporary shelter, health care, job training, and more.

Currently, about 142,000 people are homeless in Los Angeles County. Of that population:

* 24% Families
* 56% Adult Men
* 24% Adult Women
* 15% Children under 18
* 12% Veterans
* 31% Mentally Ill

In 2006, the city of Los Angeles instituted the Safer City Initiative geared towards crime-fighting in this traditionally cutthroat area of Los Angeles. At the time rife with drug dealers, prostitution, gangs (and as such, gang fighting), and thousands simply lounging on public sidewalks, Skid Row has been largely cleaned up by the Safer City Initiative.

While drugs, prostitution, even gangs are still an inevitable presence in the homeless capital of the world, as Councilwoman Jan Perry said, it used to be more like “Dante’s Inferno. Now it’s like a neighborhood.”