Christmas on Skid Row

These are gloomy days along The Row--Los Angeles’ Skid Row.

“Christmas makes them feel poorer,” the Rev. Alice Callaghan, director of Las Familias del Pueblo, said. An Episcopal priest, she works with some of the poorest of the poor.

Jill Halverson, the founder and executive director of the Downtown Women’s Center, serving the chronically mentally ill, has special plans for tonight.

“Usually we are not open in the evening, but we stay open Christmas Eve till 8 or 9 because it’s a real hard time,” she said. “Many of these women have had their children taken from them, and they don’t know where they are. Christmas Day is not as bad. Once the sun comes up, they feel they can make it. And we’ll have a big dinner then.”

Hundreds will come from temporary dormitory accommodations or makeshift resting places in doorways and under bridges to join the long lines at missions and soup kitchens for a turkey dinner--a seasonal feast for the homeless. They are used to long lines. “They stand in line for most of their services,” Ruth Schwartz, executive director of the Shelter Partnership, said.

The demand for emergency shelter increased 50% in Los Angeles this year, according to a survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. That was the highest increase among the 25 cities included in the survey. There are an estimated 33,000 homeless in Los Angeles. The emergency shelter hot line for Los Angeles County was unable to find housing for 42% of those who called in the first 10 months of this year. A spot two-week check of those seeking emergency shelter discovered that 60% of them were families. Among the chronically mentally ill alone, there is a shortage of 15,212 beds in the county.

And matters are getting worse, not better, with 7 million more people in the poverty sector since 1979--a period in which government help was reduced. The failure to maintain government benefits has accounted for half the increase in the poverty sector since 1981, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found. High unemployment and declining wages have also contributed. The number of poverty families with children now exceeds 6 million, and is still increasing, while the number of poor families escaping poverty is declining.

The poverty is very evident at Las Familias del Pueblo, where the staff is struggling to match the generosity of those who want to help with the desperation of those in need, while at the same time trying to preserve some self-respect for the poor. The agency does not give away gifts, but creates opportunities for parents to earn enough to buy something for their children so that Christmas is “a family event”--not something centered on handouts at a public agency.

“Christmas has no unique impact,” Callaghan said. “The poor are as poor as ever.”