LA Times: Homeless moving away from downtown

By Ashraf Khalil and Cara Mia DiMassa, Times Staff Writers
8:08 PM PST, January 31, 2007


Camping: Homeless people on Sunset Blvd. sidewalk camp. The practice has been banned downtown.
photo courtesy of LAT

But last fall, the city launched a major crackdown on crime and blight around skid row, rousting homeless people who camped on streets during the day and deploying 50 additional officers to focus on crime.

The campaign has resulted in a distinct migration of homeless people out of downtown, significantly reducing skid row's transient population but also putting more strain on homeless service providers in Echo Park, South Los Angeles, Hollywood and Santa Monica. A head count last month by the LAPD found 875 people living on the streets, a 35% drop from the 1,345 counted at the same time last year. The drop is even more pronounced when compared with last summer, when the count was about 1,800.

"Half the population that I'm used to seeing downtown is not there, so they're going somewhere," said Chris Van Winkle, director of the Dream Center's Under the Bridge program, which passes out food downtown daily.

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Robert Nudelman, a community activist and past president of Hollywood Heritage, a preservation group, said he's seen a distinct increase in homeless camping in his neighborhood and worries that solving a problem in downtown is causing problems in other districts.

He believes the crackdown is being fueled by the boom in lofts and condos in downtown L.A. but says residents of Hollywood should not have to pay the price.

"This is a short-term solution because it doesn't solve the problem," Nudelman said. "It gets the problem out of the way [in downtown]. But it just jumps somewhere else."

Read the full article over here.

LA TImes: LAPD presence in skid row begins paying off

Areas have been swept clean of homeless encampments and crime is down 35% this month. Still, some ask if the commitment will be long term.

By Richard Winton, Times Staff Writer
January 27, 2007

Just a few months ago, the southeast corner of 6th and San Pedro streets was a drug bazaar nestled amid cardboard boxes, tarps and tents.

It was a place where men and women in bedraggled clothes with leathery skin and uncombed hair hung out as a woman in a wheelchair slyly sold heroin to passing motorists.

Midnight Mission official Orlando Ward said he could look through his office window and see the decaying cardboard encampments stretching for three-quarters of a block, with some of their dwellers shooting up drugs in broad daylight with few consequences.

Today, all the camps on the block are gone, along with much of the drug dealing and violence that came with them.

Usually, Ward said, people slowly return after an area is cleared out.

But not this time. At least not yet.

Read the full article over here,

Downtown LA Homeless Map

This map is absolutely amazing, and a great study for us to know.
The population shift reflected in the map during a duration of the many changes occurring in downtown specifically within Central City East, especially with the enforcement of the SCI (Safer City Intiative).

November 2006

(click the image above to get a closer look)

January 2007

(click the image above to get a closer look)
The Downtown Los Angeles Homeless Map takes raw data about those sleeping on the streets and transforms it into a visual tool for understanding the situation.
(text courtesy of cartifact)

Visit the site here.

CitySound Singers coming to Love LA (1/21)

We'd like invite you all who are free this Sunday
afternoon to join us at Love LA as we welcome the
CitySound Singers to share in a special time of
praise.

The CitySound Singers- are a vocal group that
ministers and performs as part of the urban ministry

of Bel Air Presbyterian Church, which specializes in
contemporary, gospel and jazz music styles.

If you'd like to come check out Love LA this Sunday,
stop by the patio tables by cafe missio (at Young Nak)
after 3rd Service or email us at this site.

LA TImes: 5 Steps to get out of Skid Row

Something that appeared in the LA Times Sunday Edition, a couple of weeks ago in the Opinion section.
Interesting commentary by academia on Skid Row.

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By Gary Blasi, Michael Dear and Jennifer Wolch
GARY BLASI is a professor of law at UCLA Law School
MICHAEL DEAR is a professor of geography at USC
JENNIFER WOLCH is a professor of geography and director of the USC Center for Sustainable Cities
December 31, 2006

SKID ROW disproportionately — and unfairly — cares for the region's homeless because so many other communities in Los Angeles County have few or no services to help them. Currently, only 25 of 88 cities in the county spend money on housing and services for the homeless. Those communities that don't contribute are, in effect, using skid row as their solution to homelessness.

The problem is that city and county policymakers are reality-resistant — they are unable or unwilling to face up to what needs to be done about skid row. They have settled instead on the "three Cs" to fight homelessness: "contain" it in skid row by adding and concentrating mission-based services around San Julian Park; "control" it through personal property seizures, arrests and incarceration, which is one reason why 50 additional police officers were deployed in the downtown area; and "cleanse" it by closing homeless encampments and altering land-use laws.

These strategies have virtually criminalized homelessness, shifted the blame for skid row's continuing problems onto the homeless and allowed other cities to shirk their responsibilities. Clearly, these strategies are not working. Rather than trying to contain, control and cleanse skid row, we should do something radical: end homelessness.

Read the full article here.

An Article in LA Times about Raymond, One of Love LA's Most Faithful Members

Cold comfort on the street

Raymond Byrnes is homeless, but he follows a strict routine. Church twice a day, lots of coffee and caring for a friend help fill the long days and nights.

By Brady MacDonald, Times Staff Writer
11:36 PM PST, January 6, 2007

Hope

click to enlarge

Devout

click to enlarge

Raymond Byrnes awakens on the cold sidewalk, grips his rosary beads tight and prays for strength — thankful to have made it through another night on Los Angeles' skid row.

At 61, he has been homeless for nearly a decade, spending most of his nights at the corner of 5th Street and Gladys Avenue.

At the top of 5th Street, the downtown drug corridor known as "The Nickel," the crown of the 1,000-foot-tall US Bank Tower glimmers in the black sky. Around the corner on Gladys, a tent city renders both sidewalks impassable. The smell of urine, vomit, feces and garbage hangs in the air.

Each night, Byrnes sleeps in the same spot against a windowless, cinder-block wholesale liquor store — under a sign that warns "no person shall sit, lie or sleep in or upon any street, sidewalk or other public way." There's a homeless shelter two blocks away and others within walking distance, but Byrnes prefers the familiarity of his skid row corner — no matter how dangerous or difficult it is.

By day, he falls into a routine of military precision that would have made his Army colonel/ police chief/prison warden Irish American father proud.

Today, like most of Byrnes' days, starts at 5 a.m. Over the next 24 hours he can count on one meal, two church services and a dozen cups of coffee — all the sustenance he'll need to survive.

"My philosophy is you find what you need," he says.

For the rest of the article, go to here.

Article: L.A.'s Skid Row as Fraud Magnet

L.A.'s Skid Row is Gaining Notoriety as Fraud Magnet
Authorities say homeless are being used to cheat the U.S. out of millions
By RICHARD WINTON
Los Angeles Times

(Following are excerpts taken from the article)

LOS ANGELES — Skid row in Los Angeles has become a magnet for fraud schemes that use the area's homeless population to rip off the federal government, authorities warned as they launched a crackdown on the activities.

In the past few months, state and federal investigators have busted two food-stamp scams, one of which involved a merchant who allegedly gave homeless people 50 cents on the dollar for their stamps, then charged the entire value — $6 million — to the government.

Taken for medical tests

"It makes you sad and cynical the way some people take advantage of people here," said Andrew Bales, president of the Union Rescue Mission.

The mission's security chief, Scott Johnson, said his team earlier this year began noticing red, white and blue vans several times a day soliciting homeless people with Medi-Cal or Medicare cards.

He soon learned the people were being taken to an East Los Angeles clinic for medical tests. "They'd pay $30 a day," he said.

Read the full article over here.