Skid row is skeptical of judge’s order to sweep homeless people into shelters
3 years, 8 months ago

Skid row is skeptical of judge’s order to sweep homeless people into shelters

LA Times  

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter’s order to Los Angeles officials to sweep homeless people off skid row into shelters or housing is grounded in his conviction that a wrongheaded focus on creating permanent housing has perpetuated racism, spread encampments and caused the avoidable deaths of Black people. The promised resources vaporized, and “we know how that turned out,” said White, the longtime director of the Los Angeles Community Action Network, a skid row anti-poverty group. “If people don’t get sobriety the first time, the system expels them,” said Mark Casanova, head of Homeless Health Care Los Angeles, which serves active drug users. “I’m a product of being homeless and not having a place to stay, and I got housing” on skid row, Colbert said.

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History of this topic

Thousands are housed as L.A. County makes progress on Skid Row
4 months, 4 weeks ago

Thousands are housed as L.A. County makes progress on Skid Row

LA Times  

Mike Juma welcomes a guest to his home at the Weingart Center in downtown Los Angeles. In the early 1970s, for instance, proponents of development wanted to demolish much of the area while others advocated to preserve the neighborhood’s low-income housing and services as a way to keep people on Skid Row, which became known as the “containment plan.” Zev …

Why Leo Pustilnikov is buying 1,500 Skid Row apartments and wants to build thousands more
5 months, 4 weeks ago

Why Leo Pustilnikov is buying 1,500 Skid Row apartments and wants to build thousands more

LA Times  

Leo Pustilnikov, a 38-year-old developer who is in line to purchase 17 supportive housing buildings owned by the Skid Row Housing Trust, in his Beverly Hills office in July. :: Thirteen years ago, Pustilnikov began working for real estate investor Naty Saidoff, whose company owned thousands of apartments in California and Texas, serving as chief negotiator for his boss’ entrance …

In Skid Row, a 19-story residential tower for homeless people will offer gym, cafe, art studio
7 months ago

In Skid Row, a 19-story residential tower for homeless people will offer gym, cafe, art studio

LA Times  

“We’re trying to make our little corner of the world look and feel a little better,” says Kevin Murray, president and chief executive of Weingart Center Assn. “We’re trying to make our little corner of the world look and feel a little better,” said Kevin Murray, president and chief executive of Weingart Center Assn. Murray, a former state senator who …

Honoring Skid Row as a home to artists, activists, community
7 months, 2 weeks ago

Honoring Skid Row as a home to artists, activists, community

LA Times  

Hundreds of artists are set to parade through the streets of Skid Row on Saturday, a brass band booming behind them, in a biennial celebration known as Walk the Talk, which has taken place in Los Angeles since 2012. Too many people see Skid Row as a transient space, and, in many ways, Walk the Talk is about acknowledging Skid …

More migrant families with children sleeping in tents on Skid Row test official response
8 months, 2 weeks ago

More migrant families with children sleeping in tents on Skid Row test official response

LA Times  

Jhon Valencia plays with Thian, 2, with his mother, Katherine Gonzalez, in the back, on Towne Avenue on Los Angeles’ Skid Row. In response to The Times report, Cheri Todoroff, executive director of Los Angeles County’s Homeless Initiative, told the county Board of Supervisors during an April 9 meeting that “outreach teams who are on Skid Row are able to …

A deal to buy Skid Row homeless housing fell apart. Here’s why vulnerable tenants and taxpayers are at risk
8 months, 2 weeks ago

A deal to buy Skid Row homeless housing fell apart. Here’s why vulnerable tenants and taxpayers are at risk

LA Times  

Marvin Danzey III, a tenant at Skid Row Housing Trust’s Lincoln Hotel, is shown outside the building in September. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation had reached a deal this month to buy six buildings owned by the Skid Row Housing Trust for $27 million in a receivership sale. Jackson Wyche, a senior project manager with Receivership Specialists, the firm managing the …

Controversial landlord wants to buy six more troubled Skid Row properties
8 months, 3 weeks ago

Controversial landlord wants to buy six more troubled Skid Row properties

LA Times  

A half dozen properties that are owned by a failed Skid Row landlord should be sold to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the court-ordered receiver overseeing the buildings said, despite the Hollywood-based nonprofit’s problematic history of operating low-income housing. The foundation has agreed to pay $27 million for six properties owned by the Skid Row Housing Trust, which financially collapsed last …

Children on Skid Row: Four migrant families form a tenuous community
9 months, 2 weeks ago

Children on Skid Row: Four migrant families form a tenuous community

LA Times  

When the big green sanitation trucks rumbled up, eight of the 10 children living in the Skid Row encampment were away at school, easing the stress on the four sets of parents as they stuffed their belongings into plastic bags and storage boxes and dismantled their tents. Venancia Apiñas and husband Kesly Poveda Sr. watch for police to leave during …

Black-led nonprofit to take over Skid Row People’s Market, a longtime community hub
11 months, 4 weeks ago

Black-led nonprofit to take over Skid Row People’s Market, a longtime community hub

LA Times  

Pastor Stephen Jn-Marie, right, of Creating Justice LA announces the purchase of Skid Row People’s Market from owner Danny Park, center, and his family. Employee Mark Burton, right, and owner May Park help customers at Skid Row People’s Market. “Whatever benefits the community, then that’s what we’re going to do.” Park and Jn-Marie said it may take up to three …

How problems at two of Skid Row’s largest landlords threaten to worsen L.A.’s homelessness crisis
1 year ago

How problems at two of Skid Row’s largest landlords threaten to worsen L.A.’s homelessness crisis

LA Times  

Blaine Heffron, 36, who has lived in Skid Row Housing Trust and AIDS Healthcare Foundation single-room occupancy hotels, stands outside the foundation’s King Edward Hotel in May. Two of L.A.’s largest landlords of SROs and other low-rent units in Skid Row, the Skid Row Housing Trust and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, have struggled to make the 2,700 units they manage …

Taxpayer rescue of Skid Row’s largest landlord nears $40 million
1 year, 1 month ago

Taxpayer rescue of Skid Row’s largest landlord nears $40 million

LA Times  

James Porter, a longtime resident of the Sanborn Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, complains that the floors are filthy and the environment is unsafe at the Skid Row Housing Trust building. Los Angeles city taxpayer costs to rescue the failed nonprofit Skid Row Housing Trust are now expected to approach $40 million, with officials warning more dollars will be needed …

The Times’ investigations into Skid Row’s troubled housing providers
1 year, 1 month ago

The Times’ investigations into Skid Row’s troubled housing providers

LA Times  

Skid Row Housing Trust and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation have been two of the largest landlords in Skid Row, operating more than 3,000 apartments combined for formerly homeless residents. For Skid Row Housing Trust, which had widely been lauded for decades as the model supportive housing operator, its financial collapse was the result of years of mismanagement that led to …

Fallout of Skid Row Housing Trust collapse big and small: broken promises, homelessness, lost dentures
1 year, 2 months ago

Fallout of Skid Row Housing Trust collapse big and small: broken promises, homelessness, lost dentures

LA Times  

Marvin Danzey III, 58, outside the Lincoln Hotel on Skid Row in September. Ann Sewill, general manager of the Los Angeles Housing Department, said that after the Dewey was deemed uninhabitable its residents were no longer officially considered Skid Row Housing Trust tenants. Becky Schlikerman, a spokesperson for the county Department of Public Health, said the county responded to a …

A retired federal judge takes a stroll through Skid Row to prepare for his new assignment
1 year, 3 months ago

A retired federal judge takes a stroll through Skid Row to prepare for his new assignment

LA Times  

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, 79, left, and retired Judge Jay C. Gandhi, right, speak with Paula Chatman, who has been homeless in downtown L.A.’s Skid Row for 40 years. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, 79, gives Thee Big Mama, right, a comforting hug before leading an early morning tour of Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles on …

Judge approves L.A. County deal for 3,000 mental health and substance use treatment beds
1 year, 3 months ago

Judge approves L.A. County deal for 3,000 mental health and substance use treatment beds

LA Times  

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, 79, pauses in front of the Midnight Mission while leading a tour of Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles on Friday. After retired judge Jay C. Gandhi was appointed to monitor Los Angeles County’s settlement of the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights case, Carter challenged Gandhi to prove his passion for the job by …

$60-million state grant to aid L.A. County in expanding homeless services in Skid Row
1 year, 6 months ago

$60-million state grant to aid L.A. County in expanding homeless services in Skid Row

LA Times  

Prince Thomas III, who is unhoused, stands in front of a row of tents and enclosures in Los Angeles’ Skid Row. A $60-million state grant recently awarded to L.A. County’s Department of Health Services will jump-start a plan to provide interim housing and services for more than half of Skid Row’s homeless population over the next three years. L.A. County …

Judge characterizes skid row housing receivership as ‘a mess’ for 1,500 tenants
1 year, 6 months ago

Judge characterizes skid row housing receivership as ‘a mess’ for 1,500 tenants

LA Times  

In his own words, the judge was between “a rock and a hard place.” The receiver he had appointed to bring 29 dilapidated buildings up to code was drowning in debt and blaming the city of Los Angeles for his failure to borrow additional funds. “I don’t know how much problem solving has been going on.” Beckloff repeatedly urged more …

Skid Row receivership in danger of financial collapse, leaving 1,500 tenants at risk
1 year, 6 months ago

Skid Row receivership in danger of financial collapse, leaving 1,500 tenants at risk

LA Times  

A man pushes a cart with his belongings past the 649 Lofts on Los Angeles’ Skid Row in April. The financial circumstances have become so dire that Mark Adams, the receiver in charge of 29 properties owned by Skid Row Housing Trust, is asking for emergency action from a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, or else he said he’ll …

String of eviction notices leads to growing concerns about Skid Row receiver
1 year, 7 months ago

String of eviction notices leads to growing concerns about Skid Row receiver

LA Times  

People walk past the Skid Row Housing Trust-owned Dewey Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, where the windows were boarded up after a fire. Hydee Feldstein Soto deemed the eviction notices illegal and said the apparent blunder is contributing to an erosion of the city’s confidence in Mark Adams, the receiver appointed by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge in April …

All 29 Skid Row Housing Trust buildings placed under receivership
1 year, 9 months ago

All 29 Skid Row Housing Trust buildings placed under receivership

LA Times  

The Dewey Hotel, a Skid Row Housing Trust property, is seen in March in Los Angeles. All 29 buildings operated by the nonprofit Skid Row Housing Trust have been placed into receivership after many of them fell into extreme disrepair and reports of drug use became widespread. The ruling comes two days after three people died of drug overdoses in …

Overdose deaths at Skid Row Housing Trust building hint at wider problem
1 year, 9 months ago

Overdose deaths at Skid Row Housing Trust building hint at wider problem

LA Times  

Wayne Cowings Jr., who lives in a tent on skid row in downtown Los Angeles, says he uses drugs laced with fentanyl and has overdosed many times. Just a few blocks away, three people were found dead this week of drug overdoses, possible related to fentanyl, at a Skid Row Housing Trust property. Cecilia Montoya saw body bags being pushed …

Without enough shelter beds, homeless people find their own refuge in the storm
1 year, 10 months ago

Without enough shelter beds, homeless people find their own refuge in the storm

LA Times  

Maurice, 50, is wrapped in a foil-like blanket outside Fred Jordan Missions on skid row in downtown L.A. as the storm was bearing down Friday. “I feel like I’m going to be dead tonight.” Hosein said he’s tired and upset that there are not enough resources for the unhoused in Lancaster. “He’s got no place to go and will most …

Amid an overdose crisis, a California grant that helped syringe programs is drying up
1 year, 10 months ago

Amid an overdose crisis, a California grant that helped syringe programs is drying up

LA Times  

Every day that she can, Bella walks through the glassy door on a spartan stretch of Los Angeles that is emblazoned with the motto, “Save a life! For the Sidewalk Project, which runs the skid row center that Bella relies on, the money “completely changed our lives,” said Executive Director Soma Snakeoil. State officials pointed out that the budget plan …

Editorial: Skid Row Housing Trust’s downfall is a teachable moment for L.A., not a reason to give up
1 year, 10 months ago

Editorial: Skid Row Housing Trust’s downfall is a teachable moment for L.A., not a reason to give up

LA Times  

For decades, single-room occupancy hotels in downtown Los Angeles made up the only available and affordable housing for the poorest of the poor. Eventually Skid Row Housing Trust would become one of the largest and best-known producers of desperately needed permanent supportive housing on skid row. Skid Row Housing Trust’s downfall is a cautionary tale of what can go wrong …

One of Skid Row’s largest housing providers faces financial implosion
1 year, 11 months ago

One of Skid Row’s largest housing providers faces financial implosion

LA Times  

Skid row’s flagship owner and operator of subsidized housing is on the verge of financial collapse and seeking a lifeline to keep its doors open for more than a thousand low-income tenants. Skid Row Housing Trust, a pioneer in the decades-old movement to revive aging downtown real estate as homeless housing, has been working with other housing providers to take …

Editorial: Let skid row have affordable and market-rate housing. It’s the forward-looking thing to do
1 year, 11 months ago

Editorial: Let skid row have affordable and market-rate housing. It’s the forward-looking thing to do

LA Times  

For more than a century, skid row has been a community of last resort. The new Downtown Community Plan — also known as DTLA 2040 because it would set the rules for development for the next 20 years — would designate a portion of historic skid row, between 5th and 7th streets and San Pedro Street and Central Avenue, as …

Column: A skid row response to mayoral homeless promises: Bring not words, but deeds and truth
2 years, 2 months ago

Column: A skid row response to mayoral homeless promises: Bring not words, but deeds and truth

LA Times  

“You can talk that talk, but we’ve heard it before,” Quincy Arnaz Brown, who calls himself Pastor Blue, says of politicians promising to help skid row. “We hear you … but our eyes are wide open,” said Quincy Arnaz Brown, who runs a safe-haven ministry under a tent on skid row and is known as Pastor Blue. “There’s so much …

Skid Row: Inside the epicentre of LA’s homeless and crystal meth crisis
3 years, 3 months ago

Skid Row: Inside the epicentre of LA’s homeless and crystal meth crisis

The Independent  

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Crystal meth, brought in by Mexican cartels and distributed …

Appeals court vacates order to house those on L.A. skid row
3 years, 3 months ago

Appeals court vacates order to house those on L.A. skid row

LA Times  

A federal appeals court on Thursday unanimously overturned a judge’s decision that would have required Los Angeles to offer some form of shelter or housing to the entire homeless population of skid row by October. Mike Feuer, who is running for mayor, called Thursday’s ruling “an important victory” but also argued that government officials need to share Carter’s “intense sense …

What to do about Skid Row
3 years, 7 months ago

What to do about Skid Row

The Economist  

Listen to this story. Asked how she spends her days, she fires off four words: “Shower, wash, read, pray.” Ms McNichols lives surrounded by her possessions on the street in front of the Union Rescue Mission, a non-profit that serves the homeless of Los Angeles’s Skid Row. According to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, an average of 207 people …

Federal court pauses order to offer shelter to everyone on L.A.’s skid row by fall
3 years, 7 months ago

Federal court pauses order to offer shelter to everyone on L.A.’s skid row by fall

LA Times  

A panel of judges from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday temporarily froze the deadlines of a federal order to offer housing or shelter to everyone on Los Angeles’ skid row by October. Last month, the city and county of Los Angeles filed an appeal of a sweeping injunction from U.S. District Judge David O. Carter ordering …

Podcast: Federal judge to Los Angeles: House your homeless, or else
3 years, 8 months ago

Podcast: Federal judge to Los Angeles: House your homeless, or else

LA Times  

Julián Castro, the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development, visits skid row in 2019. Then last month, a federal judge issued an order: House everyone in skid row, the historical epicenter of homelessness in Los Angeles. We speak with L.A. Times housing reporter Ben Oreskes and the Rev. Andy Bales, who runs Union Rescue Mission on skid row, about …

L.A. city to fight judge’s order demanding action on skid row
3 years, 8 months ago

L.A. city to fight judge’s order demanding action on skid row

LA Times  

U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter, left, walks skid row with LAPD Officer Deon Joseph and the Rev. The city of Los Angeles plans to file an appeal against a sweeping order by a federal judge that demanded urgent action to get people off skid row, according to court papers filed Friday. The preliminary injunction from Judge David O. …

Judge’s skid row order leaves L.A. officials and housing developers scrambling
3 years, 8 months ago

Judge’s skid row order leaves L.A. officials and housing developers scrambling

LA Times  

A federal judge’s explosive order calling on Los Angeles to offer shelter or housing to every homeless person on skid row is setting off growing alarm that his decision could upend years of homeless policy in the city, stalling construction of dozens of housing projects. The scramble to decipher Carter’s order, and decide when and how to push back, has …

Judge orders L.A. city and county to offer shelter to everyone on skid row by fall
3 years, 8 months ago

Judge orders L.A. city and county to offer shelter to everyone on skid row by fall

LA Times  

A federal judge overseeing a sprawling lawsuit about homelessness in Los Angeles ordered the city and county Tuesday to offer some form of shelter or housing to the entire homeless population of skid row by October. The ruling argues that L.A. city and county wrongly focused on permanent housing at the expense of more temporary shelter, “knowing that massive development …

Can L.A. really clear homeless people from skid row by October? Here’s what we know
3 years, 8 months ago

Can L.A. really clear homeless people from skid row by October? Here’s what we know

LA Times  

A tent on skid row. The county must provide “support services to all homeless residents who accept the offer of housing,” including placements in “appropriate emergency, interim or permanent housing and treatment services,” through the county’s Department of Mental Health and Department of Public Health. “After adequate shelter is offered,” Carter said, he would allow the city to enforce laws …

Legal motion demands that L.A. provide housing for skid row’s most vulnerable
3 years, 8 months ago

Legal motion demands that L.A. provide housing for skid row’s most vulnerable

LA Times  

The plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit about homelessness are calling for the city and county of Los Angeles to offer some form of shelter to skid row’s most vulnerable by August. Attorneys for the plaintiffs want the city and county to offer some form of shelter or housing within 90 days to every homeless person between 3rd and 8th streets …

With homeless people as an audience, federal judge brings L.A. officials to skid row
3 years, 11 months ago

With homeless people as an audience, federal judge brings L.A. officials to skid row

LA Times  

Pastor Donald Dermit, left, and General Jeff, a spokesman for the Skid Row Advisory Council, talk with U.S. District Judge David O. Carter on Thursday. “This is not what I call a sound bite day,” U.S. District Judge David O. Carter observed Thursday as elected officials shuffled in and out of a tent better equipped for a wedding than a …

After a cold and wet week, federal court comes to skid row
3 years, 11 months ago

After a cold and wet week, federal court comes to skid row

LA Times  

A wet week in Los Angeles that drenched the region’s homeless population has left a federal judge outraged by the conditions people on the street face and by the city’s apparent inaction. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter spent the weekend on skid row bringing tents to people who had nowhere to shelter and now wants elected officials and attorneys …

12 photos show skid row during pandemic — and the judge risking his life to help
4 years, 8 months ago

12 photos show skid row during pandemic — and the judge risking his life to help

LA Times  

As the COVID-19 pandemic has unfolded, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter has been on a mission to force changes in the living conditions for the homeless people of L.A. At 76, Carter knows he should be at home and away from people, not outside leading a tour of the largest concentration of homeless people in the country. Herb Smith, …

Friends gather to recall the skid row guitarist who died when his tent was set ablaze
5 years, 4 months ago

Friends gather to recall the skid row guitarist who died when his tent was set ablaze

LA Times  

Friends of Dwayne Fields gather to sing near the intersection of 6th and San Pedro streets. “Through arts and culture, through his music making, through his guitar playing, he was bringing the community together,” said Pete White, executive director of the Los Angeles Community Action Network, a skid row advocacy group. Fields was actively involved in LA CAN, performing alongside …

Protesters target L.A. over skid row plan: ‘We will not be gentrified’
5 years, 5 months ago

Protesters target L.A. over skid row plan: ‘We will not be gentrified’

LA Times  

The Catalina Swimwear Building, right, in downtown L.A. has been repurposed for restaurants, distribution, retail, industrial and creative office space. “When they’re shrinking skid row, they’re forgetting everyone who lives here already,” said Steve Diaz of Los Angeles Community Action Network, a neighborhood anti-poverty group, at a morning news conference. “We will not be gentrified.” The coalition, which also includes …

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