An Article in Christian Newspaper Mentioning Love LA
Skid row controversy welcomed by faith-based groups
Competing issues of homelessness, redevelopment prompt essential dialogue
Christian Examiner
By Sue Sailhamer
------------------------------------------------------------------------
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Recent efforts by the Central City East Association to steam clean the streets, pick up trash and hose down the sidewalks of Skid Row were applauded by local business owners. But the project drew headlines when the homeless and many of their advocates protested the cleanup and called it a campaign to harass the homeless and push them out of the area.
The Union Rescue Mission and other area ministries are welcoming the headlines as the controversy brings to light the plight of those they serve.
Whose neighborhood is it? Some argue that it belongs to the business and property owners who have invested time, effort and money to reclaim LA’s blighted urban core. Others call it a necessary community for the homeless and downtrodden souls that find themselves, for whatever reason, living on the fringe of society. The city is searching for common ground where the opposing viewpoints can meet.
A 50-square-block area that makes up Skid Row, renamed Hope Central, by several of the area ministries, has the largest concentration of faith-based agencies operating anywhere in the city. Yet the ongoing debate over how to clean it up reveals the sad truth that, despite the best efforts of ministries, social agencies, the police and business associations, Skid Row remains largely unchanged.
“There are more people (living) on the street than there were a year ago,” said Andy Bales, president of the Union Rescue Mission. “It is a very complicated problem.”
Bordered by Third, Alameda, Seventh and Main streets, Skid Row has been a way station for a transitory population since the railroad first brought workers to the city in the 1880s. It is where, on a typical night, 11,000 people make their way to shelters and 1,700 sleep on the street in tents or boxes just a few blocks away from where the state’s penal system releases inmates. It is where heroin addicts die on the sidewalk and the smell of urine can be overpowering.
Prosperous parcels
LA’s red-hot real estate market has put the squeeze on Skid Row as developers rush in to turn run-down properties into loft apartments and trendy retail space. Efforts to gentrify what some prefer to call the “Central City East” district have picked up steam. As California property values have skyrocketed, so have rental prices and the number of people who can’t afford to pay them.
But the gentrification process is on hold for now. In May the City Council put a one-year moratorium on development projects that eliminate existing housing, largely single-room occupancy hotels, called SROs, while it seeks a fair policy that will serve the interests of the community.
“We are thankful for the attention the real estate market is bringing,” Bales said.
He emphasized that he shares the same goal as others—to get people off the streets. But for him and the ministry he leads, it means more than simply moving them out of the area. Bales described the mission’s approach to helping the homeless as wholehearted, treating people with dignity, “one relationship at a time.”
Limited shelter
Getting people off the street requires creating a new place for them to go. And right now, Bales explained, there is no place to send them. Last year the Union Rescue Mission purchased a 71-acre property in the foothills of the San Fernando Valley to use as transitional housing for women and children. Named the Hope Gardens Family Center, the project has stalled due to opposition from area residents who are afraid it will have a negative impact on their neighborhood.
Los Angeles County’s plan to reduce the concentration of homeless on Skid Row by establishing five regional homeless centers across the county has also been greeted with complaints from a number of local communities. The Board of Supervisors backed the plan with a pledge of $100 million for the proposed centers that would provide shelter and services.
The homeless aren’t the only ones living on Skid Row. In some ways they are the newcomers.
“Skid Row is not completely transient. A lot of people get stuck there,” said Kevin Haah, pastor of Love L.A., an open-air church that meets in the parking lot of the Union Rescue Mission.
On the fringe
The onetime corporate attorney explained that the SROs have become permanent housing for many and estimated that 60 percent of his congregation lives in single-room occupancy hotels. Haah said there needs to be more shelters and more low-income housing near the area.
“You can’t just displace the 11,000 people who live there,” he said as he offered his perspective on the issue that is on the minds of many in his congregation.
“They constantly talk about it,” the pastor said. “They are concerned about what is going to happen to them.”
Haah emphasized that the upturn in real estate prices has been devastating for people living on low incomes and has caused many working poor to be pushed out onto the street.
“I think development is a good thing,” Haah said as he summed things up. “But they can’t displace—they must replace.”
Published by Keener Communications Group, September 2006
Competing issues of homelessness, redevelopment prompt essential dialogue
Christian Examiner
By Sue Sailhamer
------------------------------------------------------------------------
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Recent efforts by the Central City East Association to steam clean the streets, pick up trash and hose down the sidewalks of Skid Row were applauded by local business owners. But the project drew headlines when the homeless and many of their advocates protested the cleanup and called it a campaign to harass the homeless and push them out of the area.
The Union Rescue Mission and other area ministries are welcoming the headlines as the controversy brings to light the plight of those they serve.
Whose neighborhood is it? Some argue that it belongs to the business and property owners who have invested time, effort and money to reclaim LA’s blighted urban core. Others call it a necessary community for the homeless and downtrodden souls that find themselves, for whatever reason, living on the fringe of society. The city is searching for common ground where the opposing viewpoints can meet.
A 50-square-block area that makes up Skid Row, renamed Hope Central, by several of the area ministries, has the largest concentration of faith-based agencies operating anywhere in the city. Yet the ongoing debate over how to clean it up reveals the sad truth that, despite the best efforts of ministries, social agencies, the police and business associations, Skid Row remains largely unchanged.
“There are more people (living) on the street than there were a year ago,” said Andy Bales, president of the Union Rescue Mission. “It is a very complicated problem.”
Bordered by Third, Alameda, Seventh and Main streets, Skid Row has been a way station for a transitory population since the railroad first brought workers to the city in the 1880s. It is where, on a typical night, 11,000 people make their way to shelters and 1,700 sleep on the street in tents or boxes just a few blocks away from where the state’s penal system releases inmates. It is where heroin addicts die on the sidewalk and the smell of urine can be overpowering.
Prosperous parcels
LA’s red-hot real estate market has put the squeeze on Skid Row as developers rush in to turn run-down properties into loft apartments and trendy retail space. Efforts to gentrify what some prefer to call the “Central City East” district have picked up steam. As California property values have skyrocketed, so have rental prices and the number of people who can’t afford to pay them.
But the gentrification process is on hold for now. In May the City Council put a one-year moratorium on development projects that eliminate existing housing, largely single-room occupancy hotels, called SROs, while it seeks a fair policy that will serve the interests of the community.
“We are thankful for the attention the real estate market is bringing,” Bales said.
He emphasized that he shares the same goal as others—to get people off the streets. But for him and the ministry he leads, it means more than simply moving them out of the area. Bales described the mission’s approach to helping the homeless as wholehearted, treating people with dignity, “one relationship at a time.”
Limited shelter
Getting people off the street requires creating a new place for them to go. And right now, Bales explained, there is no place to send them. Last year the Union Rescue Mission purchased a 71-acre property in the foothills of the San Fernando Valley to use as transitional housing for women and children. Named the Hope Gardens Family Center, the project has stalled due to opposition from area residents who are afraid it will have a negative impact on their neighborhood.
Los Angeles County’s plan to reduce the concentration of homeless on Skid Row by establishing five regional homeless centers across the county has also been greeted with complaints from a number of local communities. The Board of Supervisors backed the plan with a pledge of $100 million for the proposed centers that would provide shelter and services.
The homeless aren’t the only ones living on Skid Row. In some ways they are the newcomers.
“Skid Row is not completely transient. A lot of people get stuck there,” said Kevin Haah, pastor of Love L.A., an open-air church that meets in the parking lot of the Union Rescue Mission.
On the fringe
The onetime corporate attorney explained that the SROs have become permanent housing for many and estimated that 60 percent of his congregation lives in single-room occupancy hotels. Haah said there needs to be more shelters and more low-income housing near the area.
“You can’t just displace the 11,000 people who live there,” he said as he offered his perspective on the issue that is on the minds of many in his congregation.
“They constantly talk about it,” the pastor said. “They are concerned about what is going to happen to them.”
Haah emphasized that the upturn in real estate prices has been devastating for people living on low incomes and has caused many working poor to be pushed out onto the street.
“I think development is a good thing,” Haah said as he summed things up. “But they can’t displace—they must replace.”
Published by Keener Communications Group, September 2006
posted by Kevin Haah at 11:41 PM
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