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L.A.'s Skid Row
"I’ve known poverty first-hand, but when I started work at a transitional housing agency on Skid Row, I was nervous and intimidated."
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to this Commentary!
By Trinidad Cisneros
Los Angeles is home to more homeless people than any other city in the United States. Some estimates put the homeless population in L.A. at 80,000. But most people in the city have never walked down the six blocks of makeshift shacks and hulking shelters that make up Skid Row, located just east of downtown. Youth Radio’s Trinidad Cisneros has worked on Skid Row for the last year and a half, and it has changed his perspective.
I live in East L.A., but Skid Row is my second home.
ALEXANDER (on tape)
Skid skid skid skid row...I was walking down the street one day and I came up with this poem...
TRINIDAD
This is Alexander the poet. Skid Row has been his home for fifteen years. During the day, there are hundreds of people on each block, buying, bargaining, listening to music, and working out on the curbside. At night, Alexander has seen much more than that.
ALEXANDER (on tape)
I’ve seen people get their pants snatched off, getting robbed, a lady was snatching a dude’s pant’s pockets, another dude was on his front pocket they just ripped his pants right off on the sidewalk, I’ve seen people having sex on the sidewalk. I said, "Damn!"
TRINIDAD
I’ve known poverty first-hand, but when I started work at a transitional housing agency on Skid Row, I was nervous and intimidated. I had never worked with homeless people before. I had a lot of responsibility helping people find a place to sleep for the night, for the week, or for good. I had to ask them a lot of questions, and when I didn’t get straight answers, I had a feeling it was because I’m young, and people assumed I didn’t really know what I was doing.
I used to apologize for everything. Like it was all my fault. I would apologize that we didn’t have any water, that the seat in my office was uncomfortable...that I was only 22.
It took me almost a year on the job to get used to the fact that I couldn’t give people what they wanted or needed. And then they started to tell me sometimes the street was preferable to a dirty shelter where you had to listen to the bible before they served you dinner and they’d kick you out at six in the morning.
And to be honest, the first place some of them would go when they got kicked out at six was right in front of the police station, to buy drugs. But that’s not true for everyone...Suzan looks like anyone’s grandmother- petite, thick glasses, warm face, no signs of drug abuse.
SUZAN (on tape)
One day I lost my job, the next day they repossessed my car. I couldn’t get a job because of my age. I was 57 and it is very, very hard to find a job. It’s hard to give an address, then you have to tell them you’re in a shelter, then they look like you have some kind of leprosy.
TRINIDAD
On Skid Row, I’ve learned how to really listen to people. I’m not so scared of homeless people anymore. I understand that they need social support. Alexander the poet knows it all too well.
ALEXANDER (on tape)
I’ve seen people having sex on the sidewalk, doing everything; sick, passed out, got hit in the head- everybody walked by like nothing happened. That’s a human being! I saw this dude hugging a pole one time...
TRINIDAD
I learned that the culture of homelessness is a lot more complex than I originally thought. It's easy to look down on a homeless person, and to ignore that person, but so much harder to want to step in and help.
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