Homeless Often Take a One-Way Street to Skid Row

On his release from Chino state prison in July, broke and with no home to go to, Demetrious Williams got on a bus and headed for downtown Los Angeles. The career burglar had previously lived in the Crenshaw area and the Inland Empire, but he had only $200 in "gate" money and needed a quick place to shower and sleep. There seemed few alternatives but skid row, where more than 60 social agencies crowd a 50-block expanse.

Months later, out of work and with few prospects, he is still downtown at a homeless agency on a forbidding stretch of skid row, trying to dodge drug dealers and crime that could land him back in prison.

"If you don't have family very close or friends, you have nowhere to stay but the streets," said Williams, whose thick eyebrows and mustache are flecked with gray. "In prison, I heard about the services word-of-mouth. A lot of people know about skid row."

Although parolees like Williams are not the only faces of skid row, they symbolize how the central city area has become a dumping ground for the region's down and out.

State officials estimate that 2,000 parolees are on downtown streets, but the area also draws out-of-work families with children, emancipated foster kids, poor workers led to the area's low-cost single-room hotels, ex-cons who can't find work and criminals who see the row as a sort of Wild West show into which they can blend.

Now, however, business owners, police and even some advocates say conditions have gotten out of hand and that other law enforcement agencies, hospitals and charities must stop sending to skid row the troubled people the rest of Los Angeles County can't handle.

Part of the new scrutiny is altruistic, a response to increasing numbers of homeless living in squalid street encampments. Ambitious redevelopment plans and an influx of upscale loft residents also are major driving forces, say business leaders and advocates.

The Central City Assn., which represents business interests, recently proposed laws to prohibit sidewalk encampments and stricter ordinances banning public urination and defecation. City Councilwoman Jan Perry has already introduced motions to restrict the homeless from sleeping in front of businesses and to limit outdoor meals, following the passage in Santa Monica of similar ordinances.

Law enforcement agencies last week conducted sweeps of skid row, arresting about 200 for parole violations and other crimes.