History of Skid Row - 3
Christmas day ay Union Rescue Mission, 1948.
After the war
After the war a number of people who -- having gone through Los Angeles on their travels during the Depression or on their way to war in the Pacific -- had liked Los Angeles came back here to settle. This was the part of Los Angeles that they knew, so this is where they first came back. Over time a couple of things happened. The demand for the hotels to be primarily space for railroad workers and others seasonal employees declined. The population that settled in this area because of the availability of social services and inexpensive housing -- still a population of low income and/or substance dependence -- became more permanent and aged. The population that could relocate elsewhere in the city or the region moved away. Thus, Central City East became an area that had the more stereotypical Skid Row type population (people with alcohol dependence, other substance abuse difficulties, mental incapacity, long-term unemployability and the like). Thus, the area evolved from being primarily providing commercial hotels to a transient but working population to one that was providing more long-term places for people to live at the lowest levels of income and affordability. They were people who were generally elderly, often long-term substance abusers, of low income, but this was a neighborhood with which they were familiar, containing the facilities with which they were familiar, and the services they needed and used were there.
It is kind of interesting to look at the hotels that have big signs on them. All the hotels on this side of town have their big signs pointing east rather than pointing west (where downtown is today), and that's because this is where the railroad stations were. That is why everything faces east. The main entry point to Los Angeles was in what now is Skid Row and people who could went from here into the rest of the city as opposed to today when they come from other directions. But in any event, the occupancies of the hotels evolved over time to a more permanent, but still a very low-income population with continuing problems of substance abuse, medical problems, physical and/or mental impairments, and lack of employability.
In the 1950’s and 1960’s, a couple of things began to happen in the area. One of these was additional commercial and industrial growth, which began to impinge on the residential base in the area. At the same time, the City concluded that a lot of the buildings in the area, particularly the hotels, were seismically deficient or failed to meet other health and safety codes, and began to issue orders to correct or demolish the buildings -- to either bring them up to code or take them down because they were deemed by the City to be unsafe for people to live in. Because the revenues being generated out of those hotels generally didn't support the cost of repairs to bring them up to code, most owners opted to demolish. As a result, we went from roughly 15,000 units here in the mid-1960’s to about 7,500 units in the area by the early 1970’s.
There was a substantial amount of displacement of the resident population that resulted from property owners choosing to comply with seismic codes by demolishing the buildings rather than repairing them. That also fed into the fact that there was additional value to be had by selling the property for industrial or related development, than to keep it in residential use. So, it was both the pressure of seismic code enforcement and demand for sites for the growing industries in the area (food, produce, garment and flower related) that precipitated the loss of almost half of the area’s housing stock. (The toy industries came much later.) The industrial pressure combined with the code pressure led to a lot of the units being demolished, and a substantial displacement of the population.
After the war a number of people who -- having gone through Los Angeles on their travels during the Depression or on their way to war in the Pacific -- had liked Los Angeles came back here to settle. This was the part of Los Angeles that they knew, so this is where they first came back. Over time a couple of things happened. The demand for the hotels to be primarily space for railroad workers and others seasonal employees declined. The population that settled in this area because of the availability of social services and inexpensive housing -- still a population of low income and/or substance dependence -- became more permanent and aged. The population that could relocate elsewhere in the city or the region moved away. Thus, Central City East became an area that had the more stereotypical Skid Row type population (people with alcohol dependence, other substance abuse difficulties, mental incapacity, long-term unemployability and the like). Thus, the area evolved from being primarily providing commercial hotels to a transient but working population to one that was providing more long-term places for people to live at the lowest levels of income and affordability. They were people who were generally elderly, often long-term substance abusers, of low income, but this was a neighborhood with which they were familiar, containing the facilities with which they were familiar, and the services they needed and used were there.
It is kind of interesting to look at the hotels that have big signs on them. All the hotels on this side of town have their big signs pointing east rather than pointing west (where downtown is today), and that's because this is where the railroad stations were. That is why everything faces east. The main entry point to Los Angeles was in what now is Skid Row and people who could went from here into the rest of the city as opposed to today when they come from other directions. But in any event, the occupancies of the hotels evolved over time to a more permanent, but still a very low-income population with continuing problems of substance abuse, medical problems, physical and/or mental impairments, and lack of employability.
In the 1950’s and 1960’s, a couple of things began to happen in the area. One of these was additional commercial and industrial growth, which began to impinge on the residential base in the area. At the same time, the City concluded that a lot of the buildings in the area, particularly the hotels, were seismically deficient or failed to meet other health and safety codes, and began to issue orders to correct or demolish the buildings -- to either bring them up to code or take them down because they were deemed by the City to be unsafe for people to live in. Because the revenues being generated out of those hotels generally didn't support the cost of repairs to bring them up to code, most owners opted to demolish. As a result, we went from roughly 15,000 units here in the mid-1960’s to about 7,500 units in the area by the early 1970’s.
There was a substantial amount of displacement of the resident population that resulted from property owners choosing to comply with seismic codes by demolishing the buildings rather than repairing them. That also fed into the fact that there was additional value to be had by selling the property for industrial or related development, than to keep it in residential use. So, it was both the pressure of seismic code enforcement and demand for sites for the growing industries in the area (food, produce, garment and flower related) that precipitated the loss of almost half of the area’s housing stock. (The toy industries came much later.) The industrial pressure combined with the code pressure led to a lot of the units being demolished, and a substantial displacement of the population.
Photograph from the Los Angeles Times photographic archive, UCLA Library. Copyright Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.
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