Some Respite, if Little Cheer, for Skid Row Homeless

By SOLOMON MOORE
Published: October 31, 2007

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 30 — Not so long ago, Kenneth Johnson, 29, lived in a West Los Angeles condominium with his wife and three children and earned $4,000 a month as a forklift operator.

Now he is unemployed and divorced, and beds down each night on a grimy sidewalk in downtown’s 50-square-block Skid Row.

“It’s weird to be down here,” said Mr. Johnson, leaning against a wall as night fell. “It’s not a very easy feeling, but over a couple of weeks I got used to it.”

Like thousands of others in this despairing city within a city, Mr. Johnson came to Skid Row because it is the easiest place in Los Angeles to find services, shelter and three square meals a day.

And beginning this month, the neighborhood’s homeless have also been guaranteed some respite from the police. Under pressure from the American Civil Liberties Union, Los Angeles agreed on Oct. 10 not to appeal a federal court order and will instead allow sleeping on the sidewalk, at least until the city provides 1,250 new beds in low-income housing.

Read the rest here.