Skid Row Encampment

In late September 2005, Central City East Association contacted the news media regarding LA County Sheriffs "dumping" a released prisoner on a street corner in Skid Row.

The story subsequently appeared in the LA Times, triggering a firestorm of media attention on LA's Skid Row. LA Times columnist Steve Lopez wrote a five-part series that focused on the crime, squalor and tragedy of life on Skid Row. CNN also spent a week on the ground in Skid Row, developing a piece that shocked the nation. Mayor Villaraigosa called Los Angeles the nation's "capital of homelessness."

A few months prior to this incident, CCEA had formed a partnership with Councilmember Jan Perry, the Midnight Mission, Skid Row residents, business owners, LAPD and other community stakeholders to create the Skid Row Neighborhood Walk. This monthly walk was created to show that a diverse group of stakeholders care about this community enough to call for an end to drug-related crime in the area. CCEA's walk has been a monthly vehicle by which to educate government leaders, the public and the press about the dangers of life (and death) on Skid Row. Mayor Villaraigosa, nearly half of the LA City Council, and many of our state leaders have now walked the streets of Skid Row after dark, and have a greater understanding of the entrenched problems in the area.

Local law enforcement agencies and area hospitals that are accused of "dumping" released prisoners and indigent patients are under scrutiny. The over-concentration of registered sex offenders in Skid Row has become cause for concern in a community where women and children are increasingly present. CCEA continues to work with City Council and state legislators who are focused on several initiatives to address some of the most critical problems. City leaders have lobbied aggressively to ensure that LA receives its fair share of Prop 63 funding, which will provide new funding for mental health programs.

Support is being sought for the long-desired Downtown community court, which could create an effective system to deal with chronic drug users and those who commit quality-of-life crimes such as meter-tampering, graffiti, indecent exposure, public urination and defecation. State leaders are crafting two important pieces of legislation. The first is a Downtown "recovery zone," which would provide longer sentences for selling drugs within the Skid Row area, and would also prohibit paroled drug offenders from returning to Skid Row as a condition of their probation. The second is called the "community reunification act," which would require released inmates to be returned either to the community in which they live, or the community in which they were arrested. Currently, a majority of the County's inmates are released from L.. A. Central Jail, a short walk from Skid Row.

In January 2006, CCEA Executive Director Estela Lopez joined a 30-member delegation led by State Senator Gil Cedillo that visited New York City's Times Square to learn more about how the City has reduced homelessness and increased public safety through a unified commitment to both social services and law enforcement. CCEA will soon install its first security cameras in and around Skid Row to help deter crime and provide assistance to LAPD in prosecuting offenders. CCEA will continue its work to ensure that Skid Row is not forgotten, and to ensure the area becomes a safer, cleaner place for residents, employees and visitors.
Scheduled Skid Row walks listed elsewhere on this website. Walk schedule