Outline
Homelessness has been a major problem in Skid Row which is a congested small section in LA. Skid Row was previously a very attractive town and most people yearned to spend some time in the hotels. Economy was quite stable and peace reigned in that small town. However, tables overturned when industries in which Skid Row residents worked were relocated to other areas leaving them in poverty. Living standards also rose, making the jobless Skid Row residents unable to cater for housing and other basic needs and finally going to live in Skid Row’s streets. Measures have and are still being implemented so as to alleviate as well as bring the fateful situation to and end.
Introduction
According to (Wallace, 1965), Skid row, which is a small area situated in Los Angeles, has been faced with problems as a large number of its residents have become homeless. However, this was not the situation some decades ago as Skid Row was known to host very prominent people because of its cool environment. During those times, there was a large portion left for farming activities, where Skid Row residents secured jobs. There were also factories in which produce from those fields were processed as well as railway line to transport the produce to factories and later to the market. Those factories as well as railways provided employment to Skid Row’s residents and since laborers could not afford a luxurious life, cheap salons, theaters and hotels were put up to cater for them. However, in mid twentieth century, the situation changed as agricultural as well as industrial jobs were shifted elsewhere leaving Skid Row’s residents in trouble.
Problems Being Faced With the Increase in the Number of Homeless
According to (MacDonald, 2007), lack of employment made life in Skid Row unbearable as many would not meet their basic needs as the living standards continued to rise. This consequently led to homelessness of most of Skid Row residents which is the situation until now. The number of homeless people is rising as the city receives massive developments leaving the poor in the streets. The high standards of living accompanying the developments are unaffordable to Skid Row’s people as they can hardly pay for the high costs being charged for residential houses leave alone the cost of food and shelter.
Large numbers of homeless people have been found to move to Skid Row’s streets where they sleep hungry on bare floors. Due to congestion and littering in Skid row’s streets, some leaders have sought to remove the homeless from the streets, sending them to certain fields situated in the nearby desert. Some have been confined in camps which have been put up in mountains so as to minimize their numbers in Skid row’s streets. Still, many more are found to accumulate in the streets as an increasing number of Skid row’s residents become homeless. Financial problems have made some residents of Skid row to engage themselves in drug trafficking as well as consumption, which has rendered them mentally ill. However, instead of being taken care of, police officers have been reported to dump them in Skid Row’s streets where they die helplessly. (MacDonald, 2007)
Homeless Skid Row’s residents have been followed by problems even to the sites where they are dumped. This is because; county councils of neighboring districts restrict Skid row from relocating its homeless people near them, as they fear an overflow of the homeless to their land. Problems with neighboring districts have resulted to a shift of the exercise to a certain fifth street located at the eastern part of Broadway. The practice of putting homeless people in small congested places has resulted to severe consequences for the city. The city that was previously very peaceful has now turned to be dangerous because; the homeless have sought evil ways of sustaining themselves. Cases of theft have become the order of the day, where shops and other business premises have been broken into. People who have shown resistance have been slashed and /or strangled to death. (Hopper, 1945)
According to (Wolch, 1993), some of the homeless take advantage of the night, when they try to escape from the streets or other sites where they have been dumped, to some other parts for safety. However, this is hardly accomplished at ease as police forces are deployed in the streets so as to keep watch of those who might try to escape. The deployed police officers not only keep watch but also harass those homeless people in Skid Row’s streets. Alternative measures have been applied where homeless Skid Row’s residents have been criminalized. They have been charged with very minor offences like urinating in the public, littering and sleeping in Skid Row’s streets. Such kinds of charges are aimed at imprisoning the homeless as the police department as well as the judiciary is aware that homeless people cannot afford to bail themselves out of prisons. It’s also evident that such offences cannot be escaped by the homeless as they have no toilets of their own as well as shelter in which to spend the night. Their imprisonment consequently leads to a reduction of the homeless in Skid Row’s streets. However, as more homeless people get imprisoned, the jails of skid row get congested to a point that no more can be accommodated.
The fact that Skid Row’s council employs harsh measures to reduce the number of the homeless does not mean that they have not tried safer measures. This is because the council has spent a lot of money in efforts to provide shelter and other basic needs to the homeless but they have fallen short of funds, hence employing the alternative harsh measures. However, the amount allocated for the city’s developments highly exceed the amount set aside for the homeless showing less concern for them. Efforts to provide monthly allowances to the homeless fail to work as the amount given is hardly enough to sustain them throughout the month and they get back to Skid Row’s streets even before the next allowance is given. It therefore, occurs that the place that was once inhabited by prominent dignitaries is now inhabited by welfare families who survive at the mercies of the council as well as other organizations that help them meet their needs. Skid row’s streets are now characterized by dens of cheap liquor, fish traders, bad luck as well as mentally ill homeless people. (Erickson, 1986)
Measures Being Implemented To Alleviate the Issue
According to (Robertson, 1986), Skid row’s council as well as other private organizations has tried to employ some measures so as to alleviate the problem of homelessness. Some of its problems have therefore been addressed, among them being housing. High poverty levels of Skid row’s residents make it difficult for them to cater for housing, whose costs have been drastically rising. This is because; houses and hotels available in Skid Row are only afforded by the wealthy, leaving the poor with no option but to go to the streets. Private organizations as well as volunteer groups have come to the rescue of homeless Skid Row’s residents, offering them shelter and other necessities. Two different programs have been applied depending on the situation of homeless people. Those individuals who do not have health related problems are given transitional form of housing, where they are housed for a specific period of time or up to the time when they are in a position to house themselves. The mentally ill, those who are physically impaired as well as drug addicts are offered a permanent form of housing where they are provided with supportive services as they can hardly work to feed themselves. This is achieved by either relocating them to rescue homes or initiating housing programs where they construct or purchase buildings as well as real estates in which to house Skid Row’s homeless people. Allowances are also provided to assist the homeless pay for hotels as they cannot afford to purchase houses for each and every homeless family.
Another issue of homelessness is that of lack of employment and low inconsistent wages. Since the agricultural as well as other manufacturing industries that were previously in Skid Row were shifted, it becomes hard for residents to secure jobs as they are not allowed into other cities. Therefore, campaigns have been done, where Skid Row entrepreneurs are urged to allow homeless people to secure employment in their businesses and expensive hotels. They are also urged to give wages that would help the homeless to cater for their basic needs comfortably. Employers who already have homeless employees are persuaded to increase wages so as to help the employees get shelter for themselves as well as their families. (Schneider, 1986)
The next issue that is tackled in the reduction of homelessness is that of health where a considerable number of Skid Row homeless people are reported to suffer from mental illness. Psychiatrists and other specialists, who engage themselves in offering counseling services to the mentally ill argue that, their situation is largely caused by stress and depression. This is consequently due to inability of family heads to provide for their families which make them turn to drugs whose addictive intake renders them insane. Hence, programs have been put forth where private organizations collaborate with health providers to cater for the sick people who are homeless. Counseling services are also given to drug addicts as well as those who are already mentally incapacitated to give them hope for the future. Provision of communication services is another measure used to respond to homelessness so that information can be passed from one person to another with ease. However, this is only used after the homeless have been relocated to shelters where support organizations offer them access to phones, computers with internet services and any other available communication services. This is usually aimed at empowering the ones who are already housed so that they are in a position to seek employment and to get enlightened on available opportunities in the business world. (Wiegand, 1990)
(Davis, 1990), argues that, homelessness has also been reduced through artful solutions, where several art organizations will offer eighteen thousand dollars to each of their projects. These organizations engage themselves in strategies, where they collaborate with other agencies to provide art services to homeless Skid Row people. The program has been planned to take place for a period of twelve months, which commenced in August 2008 and will be ending this year (2009). During the operation period, the specific art organizations will be engaging the homeless in art related events, where each homeless individual is supposed to express him/ her self creatively. This way, the agencies will be able to understand the problems being experienced by the homeless so as to get a better way of solving them in a manner that will leave them satisfied. Also the homeless will be able to value their lives once more and consequently get focused to achieve a better future. Some other agencies have also added to the funds provided by art organizations, where, for example, National Endowment released sixty thousand dollars to the Investment Fund of LA to cater for the projects. The specific art organizations together with their partners as well as duties assigned to them are Armory Center and Union Station, who collaborate to provide a number of art workshops where the homeless families that have been housed in transition terms will be required to take part in some short art courses. Those courses will offer training on ceramics, painting, video stories, and drawing. Those involved are supposed to express their feelings as well as suggestions through these artworks. At the end of the operation period, they are required to exhibit their final works during an exhibition that will take place in November where all Skid Row’s residents will be experiencing awareness about homelessness.
Another category of partnership is that of My Friends with CalArts, which will carry out programs where homeless youths will be involved in creative writing under the instructions of some graduate students working with CalArts. The graduate students are also supposed to offer motivation to the homeless youths and should also mentor them. This is aimed at making the youths feel that there is still hope for the future and that they can be productive. CalArts will then publish the homeless youths’ literary works such as photographs, written scripts and drawings, which will then be used in programs aimed at reducing homelessness. (Rubington, 1962)
(Tittle, 1974), New Directions collaborates with Imagination Workshop, to involve the homeless in plays where scenes of some experiences of the homeless will be featured. Performance as well as metaphors will be used to offer healing to homeless participants. Those performances are expected to empower the homeless as they will be able to get experience in theatre productions which they can as well join as future careers. The next category is that of Lamp Community and LAPD which will be dealing with the mentally ill. Skid Row homeless residents suffering from mental illness will be engaged in several theatre workshops, where they will be offered counseling services and other kinds of therapy that should eventually lead to their mental stability. OPC in collaboration with Neighborhoods will carry out a project involving women who are mentally ill and other homeless individuals in photography sessions. During those sessions, the participants will be involved in creative story telling in which they will be able to express their views and experiences. Finally, all the five collaborations will give their feedback to the county council of LA, which will implement the proposed measures in order to homelessness
Conclusion
Though the situation of Skid Row’s homelessness has resulted in quite a number of problems, the LA’s county council as well as other NGOs is not silent but working on it. However, some of the measures provided are short term and might not be able to bring homelessness to an end. For example, those programs aimed at housing the homeless are only reducing the number of those lying on Skid Row’s streets without remembering that more are becoming homeless and filling the spaces of those who are housed. Therefore, it would be advisable for those involved to put more emphasis on programs that address the causes so as to reduce the number of those becoming homeless. (Clifford, 1976)
References
Clifford A. (1976): Caring On Skid row: Vetiras publications pp23-28
Davis M. (1990): Excavating the future in Los Angeles: Jossey Bass pp41-44
Erickson J. (1986): Housing the homeless: Rutgers Univ Center for Urban pp13-15
Hopper K. (1945): From Skid Row to new poor: Community Service Society pp33-36
MacDonald H. (2007): The Reclamation of Skid Row: City Journal Autumn pp14-18
Robertson M. (1986): Mental Disorder among homeless persons in the United States: Springer pp31-35
Rubington D. (1962): The Chronic Drunkenness offender on skid row: University of Michigan press pp12-15
Schneider J. (1986): Skid Row as an urban neighborhood: Rutgers Univ Center for Urban pp14-17
Wallace S. (1965): Skid row as a way of life: Totowa, NJ Bedminster pp19-21
Wiegand R. (1990): Sources of income on a southern skid row: Greenwood Press pp40-44
Wolch J. (1993): Homelessness in an American city: Jossey Bass pp36-39
Tittle C. (1974): Skid row, an introduction to disaffiliation: JSTOR pp15-20