The number of people who died on downtown L.A.'s skid row has declined by 36% in the last four years, according to city records, the latest sign of major changes on what for decades has been the city's epicenter of homelessness and drug-dealing.
Excluding murders and suicides, 60 people died in the skid row area in 2008, according to Los Angeles Police Department statistics. In 2005, there were 94 such deaths.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday, January 28, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 39 words Type of Material: Correction
Skid row: An article in Tuesday's California section about deaths on skid row gave the wrong last name for a man who said he had been living on downtown's streets for two years. He is Ron Johnson, not Stephenson.
The drop comes amid an LAPD crackdown that has led to drops in crime and a sharp spike in arrests. But skid row has also seen a drop in the number of people who live on the street, with some homeless advocates saying they've moved to other neighborhoods such as Hollywood and South L.A.
There is general agreement that the streets of skid row are safer these days. But the debate continues to rage about whether the LAPD's aggressive Safer City campaign is the reason -- and whether it's coming because police are harassing downtown's homeless population.
"We're seeing less deaths on skid row because the people who need help are getting help," said Los Angeles Police Capt. Jodi Wakefield. "We've done a much better job of outreach, steering people to programs that work on their addictions, whether it's alcohol or drugs. We've become social workers in a lot of ways."
Wakefield said stepped-up police contacts with the homeless early in the day have helped identify people who are sick or under the influence of drugs or alcohol. That, in turn, has allowed those at-risk people to get the medical services they need, "which is the difference between them living or dying," she said.
Along San Julian Street on Monday, most homeless people interviewed by The Times said that while there might have been fewer deaths on the streets, they were feeling the squeeze of increased police activity in the area.
"It used to be that there were a lot of people down here," said Frank Jones, who said he had been living on downtown's streets on and off for nine years. "Not anymore. Now, the police can come to one spot and grab people up. Their job is easy now."
Jones said that he had seen two people die on the streets in the time that he had been there, one man who was stabbed and another whom passersby thought had just been drunk. They had walked past him for hours before anyone realized he was dead.
Ron Stephenson, who had been living on skid row for two years, said he felt that a status quo had descended on the area. "They are trying to clean it up," he said. "But it's never going to really be safe," he said.
