As I stood speaking next to an LAPD Patrol Officer, a gentleman lay still on the sidewalk, covered in a sheet. He had not awakened that morning due to what appeared to be an overdose of heroin. Other folks in the same dire straits walked past and made signs of the cross, respectfully prayed, or blessed the man now departed.
The officer asked, “What is it going to take to change this area?” I shared the usual answers: the difference and improvement the LAPD has made through the Safer Cities Initiative, the increased outreach, the building of permanent supportive housing and the plans to build more. But then I said what I believe needs to be said, “This area of Skid Row needs to be deconstructed, disestablished. The plan to corral/contain homelessness in the 50 square block area known as Skid Row over the past several decades has created, what I describe as, the worst human made disaster in the United States. Dropping off, dumping, and gathering all of our County’s most challenged, struggling, and, sometimes, desperate folks into one dense area has done the area and those individuals undue harm.”
My friends who are homeless would be best served if they could regularly connect with other healthy people in a community surrounded and filled with Hope. That is why Union Rescue Mission founded Hope Gardens Family Center, far from the mean streets of Skid Row. The transformational locale and community has done wonders for the spirit of our moms and children. We moved ahead with the plan for Hope Gardens because of our own convictions, but also due to a study by University of Southern California which stated that our friends who are homeless would best be served in their own regions, in smaller facilities, away from the mean streets of Skid Row.
As the CEO of one of the largest Mission’s of its kind west of the Mississippi river and as the President of the Los Angeles Central Providers Collaborative on Skid Row, I now truly believe we need 100 facilities like Hope Gardens for each of our men, women and children homeless in our communities. Skid Row, as we know it, and the policies of containment and corralling need to be deconstructed and disestablished for the good of our community and the good of the individuals we are trying to assist, encourage and provide a hand up and out of homelessness. -Andy B.