Skid Row

Skid Row, Los Angeles, California is one of the most impoverished cities in the United States. It is located in Downtown, Los Angeles. It contains one of the largest populations of homelessness in the country. Skid Row was known to have its side walks riddled with cardboard boxes and camping tents for shelter. Broken down buildings and drug dealers were also a common site. Through much effort from different organizations and political reforms, Skid Row has been cleaned up a bit. The streets seem much cleaner than they once were, but for how long.

In class we watched the short documentary about the impoverished city of Skid Row. Fact after fact, the narrator surprised the entire class as we learned about the desolate area. I stared in shock at the amount of people living on the streets. I was even more surprised to hear the statistic for the average age of a homeless person. Nine years old. Skid Row was and is a very serious problem in our society. I wondered how such a problem could have been created. I suppose the city's location made it economically unstable for those trying to reside there. Maybe it's residents were unable to keep up with payments. The bulk of the population there became homeless. Soon after more homeless people began settling there as well. As the city constructed a few homes for the homeless, even more migrated to Skid Row. Although the city did it's best effort, it proved not to be enough. More had to be done.

After Skid Row received more exposure, more was done to fix it. Organizations were made to assist the homeless. The mayor ordered the hiring of more police officers to patrol the streets of Skid Row. The increase in law enforcement helped decrease the presence of drugs on the streets. It also removed most of the people living on the side walks, but where would they go? The mayor along with a few organizations built new facilities for the homeless. Shelters and government paid housing were made. The shelters provide programs from education to rehab. The government paid housing helped put many people into more stable homes. With further improvement Skid Row may one day be able to remove it's undesirable name and become it's own thriving city.