Warmth for Homeless
Downtown Los Angeles is turning a warmer face toward the homeless this winter than in past seasons of neglect. Emergency shelter is available--not enough, not financially secure enough, but available. More people will find themselves out in the cold, however, unless additional steps are taken to create or preserve low-cost housing.
The emergency shelter that went up so quickly with volunteer labor last winter in place of Tent City was closed as planned this summer. People needing temporary housing were transferred to Weingart Center, and now a new shelter for the homeless, managed by Skid Row Development Corp., is going up nearby at 6th and San Pedro streets after negotiations with neighborhood merchants.
This is dormitory housing--rows of cots with blankets--not intended as a long-term solution. Nor is it satisfactory for children. The Downtown Family Shelter, an outgrowth of Las Familias del Pueblo, has lined up state, city and foundation money to build and operate a family shelter. The group continues to help families move permanently off Skid Row. Another nonprofit group, L.A. Family Housing Corp., is working to provide low-cost permanent family housing outside Skid Row.
The Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency deserves major credit for its financial help in providing both temporary and permanent shelter as well as operating funds for the emergency shelter. It makes construction and rehabilitation loans from trust funds created as part of downtown development projects like Bunker Hill. Mayor Tom Bradley has helped both in ensuring CRA’s financial backing and expediting permit procedures within city government.
Virtually everyone who helps provide food and shelter downtown agrees that Skid Row must not become a dumping ground for other communities’ unsolved problems. Los Angeles County could help prevent that by giving leadership and advice to more groups off Skid Row seeking to provide either short- or long-term shelter. One group that is working to bring together people with commitment and people with skills and money is Shelter Partnership Corp., an outgrowth of United Way involvement.
Preserving low-rent housing helps keep people off the streets. Single Room Occupancy Housing Corp.--a private, nonprofit agency that works closely with the city--has carpenters, plumbers and electricians at work now in the gutted Florence Hotel at 5th and San Julian streets. In the same neighborhood, people still live in the Russ and Panama hotels, which SRO manages and is upgrading. It is buying four more, so that by next year there will be improved conditions in hotels with nearly 800 beds.
Far more business, foundation and church support is needed for these efforts. For example, All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena and Leo Baeck Temple in West Los Angeles are negotiating the possible purchase of one or more Skid Row hotels to rehabilitate and then manage. Housing is a community problem, and it can be solved without government money, as the Downtown Women’s Center on Los Angeles Street is demonstrating. With extensive foundation and private gifts, the center has bought and will soon open a rehabilitated building with rooms for 48 women.
Finding more money obviously is necessary. The county’s $8-a-night voucher for temporary housing downtown is inadequate for all but marginal shelter--a fact implicitly acknowledged by the county when it pays higher rates in other areas where hotels charge more. In addition, the city needs to provide more building inspectors and attorneys to insist that hotel owners cited for violations comply.
Skid Row is still a tough neighborhood. But the efforts of dedicated people have started to make a difference. The real work lies ahead if people are to be helped to stay off the streets and if other areas are to recognize their own problems and deal with the homeless there at home.
