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The term “Skid Row” originated
during the construction of the railroads in the mid-19th
century. The first railroad construction began in the Pacific
Northwest, where tracks made from harvested logs were sent
to construction sites along “skid
roads.” These “roads” also were built from
logs and their purpose was to make it much easier to keep the
logs rolling along the heavily muddied streets around sites.
The workers who built the railroads were
mostly transient, immigrant men. As the construction took
hold, businesses that catered to these men sprang up – usually
brothels and taverns for the most part. Since the men were
far away from their families and homes, single room occupancy
(SRO) hotels were built to house them.
When the men were working, they had money
to spend on prostitution, liquor and hotels. But employment
was often seasonal and scarce. When the men were out of work,
they wound up often drunk and sleeping in the streets. Alcoholism
grew among this population of men. The religious community
responded to their needs by opening shelters to house, feed
and proselytize to the men. These neighborhoods were considered
seedy, dangerous and dirty. Because of the “skid roads” that were in the center
of the neighborhoods, they became known as “Skid Rows.”
Towards the end of 19th century the rail lines were built
in Los Angeles to connect Southern California to the rest of
the country. The railroads were constructed to end just east
of the historic core of Los Angeles, which was the bustling
downtown core of the city at the time. As in other urban areas,
the brothels, bars, SRO hotels, and missions developed to serve
first the men who worked on the railroads, and later men who
traveled west on the railroads in search of work and opportunity.
Since its inception at the end of the 19th
century Los Angeles’ Skid
Row has been defined by the mix of cheap residential hotels,
industry, and religious missions and the people they serve,
ranging from workers to those down on their luck to the poor
and disabled.
During
the Great Depression of the 1930’s, LA’s
Skid Row saw an infusion of men from the rest of the United
States heading West in hopes of earning a living. Often, they
wound up on Skid Row, where they could find housing, food or
shelter of some kind.
The pattern of this hobo population continued
into and past the Depression well into the 1950’s and 1960’s.
But the 1970’s saw a dramatic and profound change. Where
once the population had been dominated mostly by men who suffered
from alcoholism, the 70’s brought Vietnam veterans and
heavy drug users. In addition, legislation was passed to deinstitutionalize
hospitals serving individuals with severe mental illness. Well
meaning as this was, the government did not follow through
on the community treatment needed to stabilize these individuals
outside of hospitals. With nowhere to go, many wound up in
Skid Row, where services and shelters were the only help available
to them.
In the 1950’s and 1960’s many
of the residential hotels fell into disrepair. The city increased
building and safety code enforcement of the residential hotels
and many owners found it cheaper to demolish the hotels,
rather than comply with work orders. The stock of affordable
housing provided through the residential hotels was reduced
by half during this period and many residents found themselves
unable to afford other housing and now homeless.
These years also saw the deterioration
of entire inner cities across the entire country. Residents
with the resources moved out of urban areas and into the
suburbs. To address the growing urban blight issue, a “War on Poverty” was
declared by then President Lyndon Johnson. With government
funding, commercial interest in urban revitalization grew.
In Los Angeles the urban revitalization began with the Bunker
Hill redevelopment (which also displaced many low income residents).
Business interests and developers expressed concern that Skid
Row and the homeless population downtown would hamper economic
development opportunities.
In the 1970’s Los Angeles Mayor Tom
Bradley was facing increasing pressure to address the issue,
but it was an ethical and moral dilemma. Displacement of
the poor and disabled had only increased homelessness downtown.
The city clearly needed a new approach. Mayor Bradley created
a special Blue Ribbon Commission charged with coming up with
a response to the dilemma.
After much study and consideration, the
commission recommended that the Community Redevelopment Agency
(CRA), which collected and managed developers’ fees
paid to the city and generated tax increment financing, use
those fees to care for and house the homeless. The commission
recommended that the CRA fund residential development in
Skid Row to preserve the community for its low income residents
and provide decent housing for them. The recommendation was
that all housing and services for the homeless be centered
in the Skid Row neighborhood where they would both be protected
for the pressures of gentrification, but also concentrate
the homeless away from Bunker Hill and the new financial
core of the city.
During this time neighborhood activists lobbied City Hall
and organized civic leaders around the idea of preserving,
rather than demolishing the SRO hotels. Advocates lobbied City
Hall to pass a moratorium on SRO demolitions or conversions.
In 1989 the moratorium was passed protecting the remaining
residential hotels in the community and throughout the city
for five years.
Skid Row Housing Trust was founded by business and civic leaders
to respond to the loss of residential hotels by preserving
and rehabilitating the remaining hotels. From its beginning
in 1989, the Trust and its board were committed to insuring
that their buildings were created with architectural beauty
and design to replace slums with true homes. With its emphasis
on award winning and nationally recognized architectural style
and design, the Trust has proven that affordable housing does
not need to be isolated from the rest of the city and can handsomely
co-exist in revitalized areas.
The Trust also was one of the national
pioneers to combine permanent housing and on-site social
services, known as “permanent
supportive housing.” By providing homeless men and women
with a permanent home (as opposed to temporary shelter), and
the treatment and services needed to stabilize disabilities
and crises, the Trust ensured that formerly homeless residents
would never become homeless again.
The Trust’s dual focus on improving
lives and the community they live in has helped define the
Skid Row community. Since its opening, the Trust has helped
hundreds of men and women reshape their lives from humility
into hope. That hope has also transformed city blocks by
replacing slums with catalytic new and restored residential
buildings.
Today Skid Row is both one of the largest
recovery communities in the world, but also remains home
to one of the largest concentrations of homelessness in the
nation. Skid Row Housing Trust and other nonprofit organizations
provide more than 2,000 apartments for homeless and low income
men and women, but there still remain many residential hotels
in varying states of decay. The debate about Skid Row and
its residents’ fate continues.
Amongst this debate one fact stands out: Homelessness in not
intractable. Providing a home closes the door on homelessness.
Once stable, drug and alcohol addiction can be treated; mental
illness and physical diseases can be managed. Skid Row is both
the community that has demonstrated that thousands of men and
women have broken the cycle of homelessness, and the community
that demonstrates the work that still lies ahead.
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