Los Angeles Skid Row: Community Problem-Solving Initiatives

History of Skid Row Initiatives

Skid row has plagued the city of Los Angeles with high amounts of crime for the last century. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and the city have partnered numerous times over the last few decades in an effort to address the transient community that inhabits this small area in downtown. This paper examines the history of past initiatives aimed at addressing the skid row epidemic and the present-day initiative that finally helped achieve visible impact on one of the worst cases of social disorder the country has ever witnessed.

The area designated as "skid row" has presented Los Angeles with numerous problems over the years. During the last decade of the 1800s, the area was home to residential hotels and transient workers seeking seasonal employment. By the end of the 1930s, the population had grown to over ten thousand homeless residents who suffered from alcoholism and showed no sign of decline (Spivack, 1998).

The first major initiative to address growing concerns over skid row came in 1947. Los Angeles Police Chief Clemence Horrall accused skid row of causing over half of the city's crimes and launched an initiative to block off the area. An additional initiative followed in 1956 when the city created a program allowing property owners to demolish and construct new structures in place of the old, deteriorating buildings that hosted much of the area's criminal activity. Chief Tom Bradley attempted to launch another enforcement operation against skid row residents in 1987, but faced heavy opposition from homeless advocates and the city's elected attorney, James Hahn. Hahn refused to prosecute individuals arrested through the initiative, arguing that those arrested could not be held responsible for their homelessness and lack of shelter options (Spivack, 1998).

Safer Cities Initiative

In 2002, Chief William Bratton launched an initiative to enforce the city's anti-camping laws, which resulted in confiscation of skid row residents' personal belongings—blankets, tents, and hygiene items—by the LAPD. However, in 2006, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a suit filed against the city of Los Angeles that denying individuals the right to lie and sleep on public sidewalks within skid row violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Following this ruling, an agreement between homeless advocates and the LAPD established that police would not arrest or confiscate items from homeless individuals between 9:00 p.m. and 6:30 a.m., provided they remained at least 10 feet away from business and residential entrances.

In 2005, the city of Los Angeles and the LAPD introduced the Safer Cities Initiative (SCI) to effectively address the city's concerns regarding skid row. The initiative aimed to reduce crime in an area that housed thousands of transient residents and was characterized by high rates of crime, prostitution, victimization, and drug use (LAPD, 2005).

The first major operation under SCI was the Main Street Pilot Project, which sought to minimize the number of tents and shelters by issuing citations. Over 50 LAPD officers were stationed within a three-block radius along Main Street to make arrests and deter activity that was attracting criminals. To support these efforts, the LAPD stationed a mobile command center near the skid row area and deployed an undercover unit focused specifically on robbery investigations. Vice units were assigned to disrupt prostitution networks. Additionally, the department tasked a dedicated group of officers with walking skid row areas to maintain order and foster interaction with the transient community.