THE WORLD IS
A SAFE PLACE
by Jim White
This month I am going to continue my story and to de-
scribe my quest to better understand the issue of
homelessness in Downtown Los Angeles. As you may
remember in my last article, I moved to DTLA from New
York C ity in early 2000. I was immediately ‘blown away’
by all the magic of the Historic Core.
When I first ventured out one evening, I was shocked to
discover my real neighbors. They were approximately
two thousand homeless people living on the street just
outside my loft. The Midnight Mission http://www.mid-
nightmission.org/ was then located just two blocks from
my incredible loft. From my window, I could see people
lined up attempting to get a space in the mission to
spend the night.
Those who were less fortunate and unable to get a
space were forced to sleep on the street, either in tents
or in the worst case scenario on pieces of cardboard or
newspaper. I began doing research to better under-
stand what was going on. I started meeting the people
on the street to hear their stories of how they became
homeless and I began to investigate what was being
done to help with the problem. I soon discovered the
complexity of the situation.
Skid row or skid road is defined as a shabby urban area
with cheap taverns, dive bars, and dilapidated hotels
frequented by lowlifes, alcoholics, and itinerants. The
term skid road originally referred to the path along
which timber workers skidded logs. Its current sense
appears to have originated in the Pacific Northwest of
the United States. It is also the transient home to a
varying number of people in DTLA who have become
homeless and have nowhere else to live.
After hearing countless stories about how people found
themselves to be homeless, I realized how this type of
situation could happen to anyone. Before the adaptive
reuse policy was instituted, the Skid row area sat virtu-
ally ignored for many years. There were approximately
ten thousand residents living in DTLA in early 2000,
suddenly new residents, like myself, were moving in
rapidly. The gentrification had begun.
I decided that I had to get involved and began asking
people I worked with ‘who is helping with this issue?’ I
was referred to an agency called (PATH) Beyond Shel-
ter. PATH Beyond Shelter is a non-profit organization
founded in 1988 in response to increasing numbers of
homeless families in Los Angeles and the need for a
more comprehensive approach to serving them. At the
time, the agency's Housing First approach introduced a
dramatic innovation in addressing family homelessness
by changing the focus of programs from providing ser-
vices in homeless shelters to directly assisting families
to return to permanent housing as quickly as possible,
and then delivering the services normally provided in
shelters once families were housed.
I felt moved by the agency’s focus on families; men,
women and children who had become homeless and
were forced to sleep on the street. The hardest part for
me of witnessing homelessness has always been see-
ing children out on the streets in DTLA. The concept
has always been a difficult thing for me to comprehend.
I was very fortunate to grow up in a wonderful home
with plenty of food, clean water and creature comforts
that go along with growing up in the Midwest.
I contacted the President/CEO and she welcomed my
offer to get involved. I attended a board meeting and
was soon elected to the board of directors and then
shortly after, elected to the executive board. The board
consisted of ten people who were giving guidance to
the agency. We were charged with helping create more
public awareness for the agency and the homelessness
issue. We were also heavily involved in fundraising. A
nonprofit organization’s funding is fueled by a combina-
tion of City, County, State and Federal Government
funding along with private grants and donations.
I was also able to visit homeless families who were in
transition from the street into permanent affordable
housing. PATH Beyond Shelter would attempt to get
homeless families into temporary hotel rooms while the
long process of finding and securing permanent hous-
ing was underway. I felt a new sense of purpose by be-
ing able to bring food, housewares and toys for the