Primary Causes

OK I DISAGREE WITH THIS STATEMENT: Drug addiction and disease can can lead people to become life long tenants of skid row streets even if they didn’t have these issues before they arrived.

This is just an excuse for ppl to use when they choose not to be responsible for their present environment and their future. It’s a victim mentality…which is used by sick AND healthy Skid Row residents.

I’m very familiar with L.A.’s Skid Row (walk through there on a semi-regular basis) and I wouldn’t be a flat broke resident there more than three weeks (or less) before finding a permanent roof over my head. No way.

People who are chronically homeless are: 1. those who had addictions and illness PRIOR to being homeless and are too sick to focus on their future or health

1. ppl. who refuse to live by the norms of society, i.e. get a job, support oneself and would rather ‘hang out’, eat free shelter food and hustle ppl. for money.

I’ve seen instances with homeless people taken directly off the streets and given a room to live in clean clothes, food and a chance to work full time and within a month, they have chosen to return to Skid Row. Why? Because they don’t like being supervised by others on a job and would rather live life on their terms. Well, its their right, and there you go, but forget about the pity party. They made their choice to stay in Skid Row, so deal with it from that level.

It’s sad to see ppl who are homeless because of illness and drug problems because there is never enough social services (thank you ronald reagan!) but anyone who is motivated to get out that environment and start over really can do so. GW

Did anyone say it was the main cause. NO!! What is being said is that if the environment is not sanitary people can get illnesses that can become chronic and make it difficult to come out from those situations. And please , semantics , yes ,I know that people can get illnesses from sharing needles and unsafe sex. I am not ignorant.

This is the problem with that type of thinking.. everyone does not fit the mold of starting out coming here with an illness or an addiction. And you may walk through here , but you don’t live here and watch people go from not having these problems to deteriorating with these problems. It is hard for some people to imagine that there are those who live in poverty in this country not by any choice of their own.

From the standpoint of a pyhsiological ,not psychological basis of what I am saying ,it is difficult for people to understand how important the environment is in making a situation worse.

But it is interesting that you are just stating what I have just stated. Without a place to live people tend to get worse. With a clean home and clean place they tend to get better.

So in addressing these concerns…

Why do we tend to sterotype these people? Why does everyone have to be mentally ill , or suffer with a substance abuse problem to be homeless on the streets of skid row? I watch these people come here all of the time , they aren’t all mentally ill and drug addicts and if we just neglect the environment we make it worse. And when we do not provide services, affordable housing for those who don’t have those problems , it becomes a problem , it can turn into illness or substance abuse.

SO , by your statements we keep the streets filthy so that if per chance someone with a substance abuse problem comes here they can get hepatitis etc .

From the point of view from those with homes and jobs , it is a very difficult idea to think it can happen to them. So I always hear this. The physical affects the emotional and the emotional effects the physical.

Plus there are lot’s of people living in central city east working for a living . This is something no one talks about. They might be working at cold storage I even know someone , who is a neighbor who works at Wolfgang Pucks.

It may sound hopeless in saying that, but yes, homelessness may well be a cause of homelessness. Some people are lucky and don’t fall into the traps and others do.Some wash their hands before they eat from a soup or sandwich line , someone else doesn’t. Not everyone is the same. We just hold the line to make sure that those traps are reduced. If we can keep the place clean and have a decent place where people can use the bathroom , sanitized place , then maybe that is one less person , who sits in a porta potty on someone else’s urine with an open sore on their bottom and doesn’t get an illness. Or child who puts their hand on the sidewalk where someone just urinated , then puts their hand back into their mouths. I saw these things from my window all of the time .Well, accept for the people sitting in the porta potty. Esp when I saw a mother on the pay phone and her child put it’s hands on the filthy sidewalk then stick her hand back into here mouth, where the night before people were urinating at that spot,

Every little thing in this world counts. Everything is connected. And like Eric Said ,makes it hard to get back up when you have , TB , or HIV , or Hepatitis C, or even after getting a bad staph infection. Or decide that one night to help you sleep you put that first hit of rock in your system, because it is everywhere.

No excuses here. Just being practical. Not everyone is the same. And all the social services in the world aren’t going to end homelessness until we ……..

Those toilets are gonna be a breeding ground for drug dealing, drug using, and prostitution.

Need I reference the latimes article on the self proclaimed skid row ‘madam’ who ran her prostitution ring out of portable toilets?

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez17oct17pg,1,1107328.photogallery?coll=l&index=2

Seriously now, we’re talking about people having sex in quite possibly the dirtiest location imaginable… god only knows what will become of these brand new modern facilities that you can actually breathe in…

dev: there’s a huge difference between the automated pay toilets and the toilets that are referenced in that article. the pay toilets only stay locked for a limited time, automatically clean themselves after use, and are serviced regularly (twice a day is the frequency i recall).

and they blog.

you may want to read up on the success that other cities have had with similar automated pay toilets. (and the ones that have been placed in skid row are simply automated toilets – no payment involved.)

Hmmm, successful at what exactly? Keeping the homeless from deficating on the streets? I’m sure the dozen toilets will go far in servicing the 10,000 bums in downtown.

Those high tech toilet features sound great on paper, but in reality you could put 24 hour security in front of these facilities and they’ll still be used for smoking crack at the very least.

But there wont be 24 hour security, so in addition to drug use, you can expect prostitution and drug dealing. Time limits on the locks wont make much difference, considering that all this crap is already done in public as it is.

A month ago on this same blog I read an article about a member of the LAPD advising against people giving out food and clothes to the homeless, as these goods are often exchanged for narcotics.

You’re dealing with addicts and if the community started treating them accordingly you’d all be taking a step in the right direction.

But instead you give them a means to continue their drug use.

With things like this… you think youre helping, but youre not. Youre apart of the problem.

dev - have you seen anyone using drugs in any of the automated pay toilets? or are you just assuming automated toilets won’t work because the porta-potties didn’t? care to address what makes the automated toilets different or do you just want to cling to irrelevant and outdated information? btw, the earth is round, you might want to keep up.

and as a matter of fact, i do help keep the homeless (and others) from defecating on the streets. i know it’s hard to believe, but most people, homeless or not, would rather take a dump in private than on the curb. yes, people still defecate on the streets, though not usually anywhere near the new toilets. so what’s your point, that we need more automated toilets to address the “10,000 bums in downtown”? of course we need more, but if we don’t have enough does that mean we shouldn’t have any?

how again am i part of the problem? and please, give me hard facts because your erroneous information, flawed logic, sweeping generalization and tired cliches fail to impress even a toilet.

flawed logic?

Hilarious. You want flawled logic? Here you go:

“That is one reason I fought vehemently for the automated public toilets. Drug addiction and disease can can lead people to become life long tenants of skid row streets even if they didn’t have these issues before they arrived.”

Combating drug addtiction with automated toilets? Were you planning on holding Narcotics Anonymous meetins in these new toilets of yours? If so, the location is suiting.

gee you’re right, i guess i could combat drug addiction with indifference, finger-pointing, and saying “i told you so” - much more effective. oh but wait, we’re not necessarily just battling drug addiction, but trying to change the quality of life down here. broken windows, ever heard of it? but yeah, i see where i’m part of the problem and you’re so smart for pointing it out. you win.

or i could just bring up one part of the problem, highlight one aspect of the battle, ridicule it and then sit on my high horse. yeah, that works.

I don’t know how you’ve come to the conclusion that you’re utilizing the broken windows strategy and deterring crime by implementing a couple public toilets for the thousands of homeless in downtown, but since you brought it up I should add that every time the LAPD experiments with this strategy, it’s attempts to clean up skid row are halted by a mob of activists accusing the police of civil rights violations.

Reading some of the comments shows just how little people know about what is actually taking place on Skid Row, the outskirts of downtown and the rest of Los Angeles. We have 100,000 homeless people with the vast majority surviving on the streets. The portable toilets is one small step in the right direction. We need not analyze the “what if’s” because that can apply to anything in life and has no solid base. It’s simple, people need to go to the bathroom! You and I can do that in our lofts or place of business. However, those who are destitute and existing on the edge of survival cannot. Most places of business downtown, much like the rest of the neighborhood have a very negative attitude towards the poor. “If you can’t pay then go away!” THAT is the sad mentality of many people who live and/or conduct business downtown. So what do you want these people to do? Defecate on your desk? Urinate on your car? What’s even worse is the LAPD is so damn barbaric that they actually cite these poor people with tickets. They can’t pay them, nor are they fit for court and ultimately get warrants issued for their arrest. You don’t even have a clue as to the scope of the problem. I would love to see people take an interest in bringing a safe, smart and equitable resolution to the problem by involving those whom are suffering as opposed to the elitists dictating the rules.