Confessions of a Man Who Has Lived in LA’s Skid Row for 7 Years

Why would you choose to live in Skid Row?

I liked the apartment, and I like DTLA a lot.

It’s super walkable, great transit access, and it’s super underrated overall.

How much do you pay in rent?

Rent is about $2,000, including utilities.

For DTLA, it’s pretty absurd how much space we get along with parking.

It’s a studio, but a pretty solid one shape-wise.

Do you ever worry about your safety? Do you have to walk through homeless encampments whenever you leave your apartment?

I carry pepper spray everywhere I go, both in and out of Skid Row. In general, no, I’m not worried. I’ve never had a problem and I’ve been here for nearly a decade.

There are a lot of tents around, so depending on the week, I’ll walk a few blocks through encampments. The streets get cleaned once a week, so the tents get reshuffled often.

Most people on the streets are super chill and they don’t want anything to do with you.

The only people to watch out for are people who are behaving unpredictably because of mental health issues or addiction. You never know what they’re seeing or thinking, so it’s best not to risk engaging with them.

What’s the biggest misconception people have about Skid Row?

Skid Row has become very famous in the era of social media, and it’s used as an example of a failed city or state. It’s a very easy thing to point to and say, “LA sucks because Skid Row exists.”

It’s often used as a political tool to mention the failures of administrations, for example.

However, Skid Row is over 100 years old, and many cities have their own versions of Skid Row. Like many things in LA, there have just been significantly more cameras and eyes on this specific area of poverty, and it gets broadcast to the rest of the world.

Additionally, many people have an unrealistic understanding of how to solve Skid Row’s issues. Many people in LA think building more housing will solve everything; it won’t.

There are a ton of reasons that people are on the streets here. Mental health, opioid addiction, and poverty are often combined reasons. You can’t just give someone with mental health or addiction issues an apartment and expect everything to be solved.

But wouldn’t building more affordable housing help?

I do think more housing is a net positive. My point was only highlighting that more housing does not solve the systemic issues of addiction and mental health that put a lot of people on the street in the first place.

Once you realize all of the overlapping issues, it becomes way more difficult to imagine what needs to be done and in what order.

Simply living here doesn’t make me an expert on the solutions. It most definitely doesn’t.

The point I’m trying to articulate overall is that my perspective on overlapping societal issues that lead to this kind of suffering is significantly less black and white than before I lived here.

Compared to what I’ve seen and know now, I basically knew nothing of how deep some of these issues went before living here, and I’m still not even close to fully understanding.

Why do you think so many homeless people congregate in Los Angeles?

I think there’s a number of reasons.

A big one is weather. LA is arguably one of the most manageable places to be on the street in the US year-round.

Also, the infrastructure for homeless support is big. If you wanted to live on the street but have access to services, food, and support, Skid Row has historic infrastructure and missions that support you.

Lastly, something that has to be mentioned is the cost of living here in LA. Once you’re on the street, it’s extremely hard to get stability again, especially if you have mental health or addiction issues.

This is a smaller one and oftentimes overblown, but other cities and states in the US sometimes pay to send their homeless populations this way, too.

How often are you awakened by strange things happening outside?

Fireworks are going off all year long.

For a lot of Angelenos, fireworks in neighborhoods become a nuisance during specific holidays. In Skid Row, it could be the middle of the night in April and a giant firework will go off.

I grew up in LA city, so helicopters, ambulances, etc., have never woken me up. Being in DTLA isn’t much different than how I grew up, other than the fireworks.

Outside of our unit, though, sometimes you hear random people yelling or some shit going down. You usually can’t hear stuff like that inside our place.

Have there been moments when you questioned your decision to live there?

Generally safe overall. I’ve only grown happier with my decision to move here over time.

It’s a historically industrial area, and a lot of people on the street understandably build fires to stay warm. Every once in a while, a fire will ignite a building, or one of the nearby wholesalers who sell lithium-ion-powered things will have a fire.

There have been a solid amount of structure fires that have been a little frustrating.

Also, the garage gets broken into periodically.

What’s the strangest thing you’ve witnessed that most people wouldn’t consider normal?

Open meth use, probably. I don’t see it every day, but I see it often enough.

Is Skid Row really a designated neighborhood, or is that just a nickname?

The history of the designated “Skid Row” neighborhood is super interesting. Even the fire engines in the area have Skid Row painted on them.

It became an “unofficial containment zone” for homelessness in the mid-1970s.

It’s a place where, in some ways, anything goes so long as you mind your own business and aren’t actively harming anyone around you.

What do you think Los Angeles will do about Skid Row when the 2028 Olympics arrive?

I don’t think the city is going to do much about Skid Row for the Olympics.

I think the city is going to focus on the other parts of LA where encampments have grown, the more touristy and expensive areas.

If anything, Skid Row might grow a bit because of the Olympics if they move people from other encampments here.

Nobody comes over this way, so the city has no urgency to do anything about Skid Row. It’s an unofficial containment zone for a reason.

Has living there made you desensitized to the suffering around you, or has it made you more empathetic?

It has definitely desensitized me.

I grew up in the city of LA, so I’ve always seen pockets of poverty, addiction, etc., but this is no doubt the most intense place I’ve ever lived in regards to homelessness.

It is a lot to see it every day, but I have so much more complex of a view and perspective than I ever would have had I never moved here.

So, while it can be a lot sometimes, I’m grateful that I chose to move here.

What has living in Skid Row taught you about the people who live on the streets?

It’s definitely intense and dystopian. However, I think a lot of us have been taught to fear poverty.

Once you realize that it’s just people trying to get by, people who have their own problems, it becomes less scary and more sad.

It’s a lot to live within all of it. Every day, you’re forced to look at and think about the systemic problems that lead to this level of suffering.

But I’d rather live here than live somewhere else and pretend it doesn’t exist.