Los Angeles County spent over $1 Billion responding to homelessness in 2015civ and I found visiting the city today an uncomfortable and surreal experience. Concealed in the shadows of the monuments of the nation’s film and television industry, depravity and hopelessness co-exist alongside a caricature of entertainment and amusement. Both the visibility of rough sleeping and apparent shocking severity of the wider homelessness situation here is astonishing. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) estimates there are a total of 83,347 homeless people in the streets and in shelters on any one night in LAcv; this is the largest homeless population for any major metropolitan area in the United states of America.
It is acutely obvious that many members of the street homeless community are experiencing severe drug and alcohol abuse and dependency issues; I observed countless individuals who appeared affected by unidentifiable mixtures of chemical substances, wandering the ‘Walk of Fame’ in a state of what can only be described as delirium. Talking to local shop and business owners on the busy tourist strip, they explained it wasn’t uncommon to witness drug-dealing, fighting, collapses and overdoses; all felt at a loss of how to adequately and appropriately respond. It felt unsafe, uncertain and frankly, it felt frightening.
Hollywood’s dark underbelly, the infamous ‘Skid Row’ is a 54-block area in downtown Los Angeles that has become synonymous with homelessness, poverty and crime, containing one of the largest stable populations of homeless people in the United States of America. I was given a tour of the area by American activist and advocate for the homeless Theodore "Ted" Hayes Jr and his professional colleague of over twenty years, Rhonda Elizabeth Flanzbaum. With lived experience and extensive local knowledge, they provided some insight into the bleak existence of those who reside here - and how the area has changed over time.
The complex history of Skid Row – accurately described by some as ‘the largest display of human misery in the United States of America’ - can be traced back to the 1870’s, when the railroads were built on the periphery of an emerging downtown and immigrant men flocked to the area to find work. As construction took hold, businesses that catered to single males materialised – mostly brothels, taverns and single room occupancy (SRO) hotelscvi. With its year-round warm climates and liberal attitude, the area fast became known as a magnet to travellers and ‘drifters’.
In 2002, newly appointed Los Angeles Police Department chief William Bratton announced a plan to clean up the area by aggressively enforcing an old ‘anti-camping’ ordinance. In April 2006, following complaints from a number of cited individuals, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the city was in violation of the 8th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and sections of the California Constitution. The court stated that ‘the LAPD cannot arrest people for sitting, lying, or sleeping on public sidewalks in Skid Row’cvii.
Since this time, officials have tried – and failed – to clear Skid Row’s sidewalks of homeless people, namely by stepping up their search and arrest of vagrants who line the street corners. In 2016, as law enforcement tried to stem a spate of homicides and gang-related shootings while dealing with a growing homeless population;
Estimates place numbers of people sleeping rough in Skid Row today – predominantly single black males – between 8,000 11,000cix. It is almost impossible to convey just how extreme the problem here is, as well as how barbaric the living conditions appear.
It was impossible to count the number of tents which line the sidewalks; sidewalk, after sidewalk, after sidewalk. I was stunned, shocked and disturbed by the scale of homelessness here. Driving from Beverly Hills, I felt as though I had entered into a third world country and the experience moved me to my very core.
It is difficult to put into words just how bleak and hopeless a life without a home in America can be. It appears that if a person is lacking in a robust, sustainable support system and subsequently falls into circumstances where they lose income, employment, health or their home, it can be near-impossible to recover from the crisis to regain normality and stability again. During my Fellowship, I met individuals who
were sleeping on the streets through spousal death, sexual and domestic abuse, redundancy and business failures. I also met people who were disabled, had become too unwell to manage their homes and those who had been negatively impacted as a result of being the victim of crime.
Trapped in a cycle of merely trying to survive day-to-day, I couldn’t help but feel hopeless on their behalf as I pondered what their outlook would be.
civ. https://chronicleofsocialchange.org/los-angeles/l-a-county-spends-1-billion-on-county-services-for-singlehomeless-adults/16807
cv. https://www.lachamber.com/clientuploads/LUCH_committee/102208_Homeless_brochure.pdf
cvi. https://skidrow.org/about/history/ (Web version unavailable)
cvii. https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-southern-california-wins-historic-victory-homeless-rights-case
95 (Web version unavailable)
cviii. https://assets.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/cityprof.pdf (Web version unavailable)
cix. https://www.lachamber.com/clientuploads/LUCH_committee/102208_Homeless_brochure.pdf
cx. https://www.popcenter.org/problems/homeless_encampments/print/ (Web version unavailable)
Copyright © by Amy.F.Varle, January 2018.
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
The views and opinions expressed in this report and its content are those of the author and not of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, which has no responsibility or liability for any part of the report.
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