As officers are getting ready to head out
Monday morning and patrol the Downtown area in Los Angeles, there is a homeless
woman inconspicuously placing a glass pipe to her lips at the steps of the Central
Community Police Station, right in front of Skid Row.
It is normal for this to be seen in here, where every first week of
the month majority of the homeless people here can be seen taking some sort of
drug that they just bought with their recent welfare check. She, along with
thousands of other homeless individuals, makeup the 17,000 plus population of
Skid Row, where it serves as a breeding ground for the highest crime rate, drug
use, and homelessness in the city alone.
Although the conditions in Skid Row have improved in the past six
years according to LAPD, conditions are still far from perfect in the area that
has centralized over 17,000 of Los Angeles’ homeless population.
“Since then, things have gotten
better,” says Detective Joseph Smith, who works at the Detective Bureau at the
Central Community Police Station. “A lot more enforcement has been put on, such
as sanitary regulations, when the people can put up their tents, and now about
100 officers patrol Skid Row. “
However, Smith believes that without
eliminating welfare for the homeless, there will not be any change in the
crime/drug rate in the area at all.
“There’s
only so much we can do if they’re used to being out on the streets, being put
in jail, and being put out on the streets again. The money we give them as taxpayers for drugs
needs to be taken away to prevent this losing battle,” says Smith.
Others disagree with common
misconceptions about homeless people and have taken action and put matter into
their own hands to help improve the situation on Skid Row and spread awareness
about the actual stories of the people there.
“By writing off most of the people on Skid Row as drug addicts
and anything less than human, we’re not doing anything to improve the
situation,” says Mel Tillekeratne, coordinator of Monday Night Mission, an
event that feeds the homeless every Monday through Friday right outside of the
Midnight Mission Building on Skid Row. Tillekeratne has been feeding the
homeless for almost two years now, and since then he has had a better
understanding of people’s situation in Skid Row.
“Many of the people out there are mentally ill and are even born
with schizophrenia and bipolar disorders, which enable them to self medicate on
the streets,” says Tillekeratne.
Tillekeratne believes that there are other alternatives to
alleviate the problems on Skid Row.
“Police has done a better job here, but there needs to be more
surveillance to prevent drugs dealers from bringing drugs to Skid Row. Many of the
people here don’t know any better because of their mental illnesses and they
are lured in by drug dealers to use drugs,” says Tillekeratne. “There also
needs better training on behalf of the department for their officers on how to
deal with mentally ill people. It’s not an easy crowd to deal with,” says
Tillekeratne.
Carlos Martinez, Director of Community Service for the CSULB
chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA), agrees with Tillekeratne.
“One cannot just simply stop
helping others and let them starve to death just because a few people
use that help for other purposes,” says Martinez, who has worked with
Tillekeratne’s Monday Night Mission.
“You can only understand the
situation of people at Skid Row if you look at it from a different perspective
and take the time to go there,” says Martinez.
Although there are many
efforts made on behalf of whom Smith calls “do-gooders”, who are
people who dedicate their time to give back to the homeless, he believes that
they should leave the charity work to the missions, such as Midnight Mission,
on Skid Row, where programs that intend on giving the homeless jobs, money, and
apartments within two years.
“We are doing something. It’s
just a matter if they take the offer or decide to stay on the streets,” says
Smith.
Tillekeratne still believes there needs more to be done.
“People make mistakes, such as myself and everyone on this
earth, but everyone has to help each other. The people there have nobody but
themselves, and we have to work together to give them hope.“
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