Habitues Surveyed : Skid Row--Living on a Dead-End

The most comprehensive study ever conducted of Los Angeles’ homeless Skid Row population paints a harrowing portrait of the thousands of people living seemingly dead-end lives on the streets.

On average, the study made public Thursday found, they are under 40, lead isolated lives and they often go hungry. More than half are black or Latino, and half are addicted to either alcohol or drugs. Many suffer from severe mental illness and few receive any sort of care. They rest on mission beds, along sidewalks or in movie theaters, often staying awake all night to protect themselves--with limited success--from attack.

And, in a statistic made frightening by their bouts with mental illness, nearly a quarter of them carry guns or knives.

But the survey, a two-year effort jointly financed by the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and the National Institute of Mental Health, also emphasized that some of the homeless had reasonable prospects for escaping Skid Row.

Mental Illness Easily Controlled

Almost 11%, for example, suffer from a mental illness that is easily controlled by medication, and an additional 30% are eligible for financial benefits that could help pull them from poverty. As many as two of every five Skid Row residents may be trapped only by lack of a job.

But regardless of what is holding them back, the study said, none are finding the help they need.

“This is a massive problem,” said Dr. Rodger K. Farr, a county psychiatrist who co-authored the 294-page study. “They’ve fallen out of the system.”

The survey tallied the results of face-to-face interviews with 379 homeless people questioned in 20 locations within conservatively drawn boundaries of Skid Row--from 1st Street south to 8th Street, and Broadway east to Central Avenue.

The interviews, which took place between July, 1984, and March, 1985, and ranged up to three hours each, included questions on health, employment, quality of life, family history and employment. Answers were collated during the last year and submitted days ago to the Board of Supervisors.

Survey organizers took pains to make sure that the respondents represented the overall Skid Row population, Farr said. But the respondents were overwhelmingly male, perhaps because questioners were denied entrance to the single women’s facility on Skid Row, he said.

Those who did respond proved to be younger than the overall county population--65.5% were age 40 or under, and none was older than 70.

Mostly Minority

The group also was overwhelmingly minority. Almost 39% were black, while the county’s black adult population in the 1980 Census was only 11.4%. Almost 25% were Latino, about the same as the 23.3% Latino adult population in the county as a whole. And 27% were non-Latin whites--less than half of the percentage found in the overall county population.

The population showed signs of being more isolated than typical adults. Nearly 60% of them, for example, said they had never married, compared to a figure of 34% for the general Los Angeles County adult population. Although many reported that they had contact with their families, 25% said they were estranged from a family member or members, and a staggering 40% said they had had no contact with friends within the last month.

The homeless contrasted most with typical Angelenos in their mental health, or lack of it. Nearly 14% suffered during their life from schizophrenia--a rate 35 times higher than in the overall county population. Another 11% were diagnosed as manic-depressives during their life, a rate 18 times that seen in the overall population.

Most of the homeless showed signs of psychological distress and anxiety, and half had an existing drug or alcohol addiction, the study showed.

“As many as a third might be termed severely and chronically mentally ill,” the survey said. “This figure might rise even higher were it to have included individuals who are so severely impaired by anxiety or personality disorders.”

Further questioning determined that 35.5% had been hospitalized at some point in their lives for treatment of mental problems or drug and alcohol abuse. But there was little indication that the mentally ill are being helped.

Only 4.4% had received inpatient care for mental problems in the last year, and only 8.2% had received outpatient mental treatment in the six months before their interview.

Additionally, half described themselves as in either poor or fair physical health, with 70% saying they had had health problems within the last year.

“All in all, a picture emerges of a medically needy group of individuals who do not always have the resources to get the care they need,” the study said.

The survey’s picture of the daily lives of the homeless is equally bleak.

Irregular Meals

Less than a third ate three meals a day; almost 23% said they made do with one meal each day. At night, they alternate between beds in missions and makeshift bedding on the streets, averaging almost 10 days on the pavement in most months.

Showing an innovative diversity, 20% said they had spent at least one night in an all-night theater in the past month.

But some do not sleep at night. A quarter said they sleep in the day and keep vigil at night against attacks. A similar percentage carry knives or guns for protection. Virtually all said they avoid certain locations or people to avoid assaults.

Nonetheless, more than one-third had been physically assaulted in the last year and another third had been robbed. Overall, less than half of the homeless said they had escaped attack in the last year.

Two-thirds declared that they were looking for work, but they were rarely successful. Almost half reported a yearly income of less than $1,000, and 77% said they made less than $5,000 each year.

Their financial situation was not buoyed by public assistance: Despite the chronic mental illness that makes at least a third of them eligible for disability pay, only 9% had received it during their lives. An identical percentage reported receiving welfare.

Holes in Safety Net

“Applying for and receiving disability . . . is an endeavor fraught with problems,” the survey said, saying the situation “suggests a safety net which is not tightly enough woven to protect its beneficiaries.”

Still, there were indications that many could be eased out of Skid Row if programs were developed aimed at their needs.

Forty percent of the homeless showed no sign of major mental illness or drug and alcohol abuse, the survey noted.

“For these individuals, many of whom are truly desirous of finding work and who are capable of working but find themselves trapped in a vicious cycle which perpetrates their homelessness, different kinds of help are needed: medical care, job training and job-finding programs, vocational rehabilitation. . . .”

Farr, the co-author, pointed out that more than half of those interviewed said they had in the past held a job for more than five years.

Called Salvageable

“It’s a sign that there’s some salvageable thing going on,” he said.

He also noted that of the mentally ill, 11% suffer from manic-depressive illness, a disease that is commonly controlled by medication.

“If they were on medicines, they wouldn’t be there,” he said.

The study also called for stronger programs treating those who are both mentally ill and addicted to alcohol.

“These individuals need special programs staffed by professionals who . . . know how to treat their mental health and substance problems concurrently,” it said. “Unfortunately, such programs do not exist. Of all the subgroupings in the Skid Row homeless population, this group may be the most underserved.”