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President and CEO of Union Rescue Mission
Los Angeles, CA
Andy brings over 20 years of experience in community outreach and service to “his homeless friends,” as he puts it, as he leads Union Rescue Mission into a new era of unique and innovative services for Los Angeles’ Skid Row community. Andy’s vision for the future of the Mission is most definitely in keeping with the Union Rescue Mission’s long and distinguished history of service in the City of Los Angeles. Established in 1891, the Mission has always served the most desperate men, women and children of the community. One of Andy’s earliest challenges as President of the Union Rescue Mission was to assist in the development of transitional housing for mothers and their children living in the Mission’s homeless shelter and in....
Tuesday, January, 26, 2010
Don't Let Skid Row Return to Lawlessness
I received the letter sent to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and declined the offer to sign it. I believe it is yet another attempt by some to remove the helpful police presence from Skid Row, which would return this downtown neighborhood to the tragic scenes featured in The Soloist.
Statements were made in the letter that stated “crime has been reduced by 33% on Skid Row, therefore it is time to move police away from Skid Row and to more dangerous parts of our city.” The fact is, the police presence is the reason for this crime reduction and an absence of police would be followed by a return to lawlessness. As it is, there is still far too much crime and violence on Skid Row, especially against women.
And some of the crime has moved into the permanent-supportive housing projects of some of the letter’s signers. Leaders of gangs heading up drug sales move in, take over several apartments, require residents to package and sell drugs under the threat of violence. It has been reported by reputable sources that some leaders of these housing groups actually dissuade their employees from reporting the crimes or cooperating with police.
I have met people on the street, displaced from their permanent-supportive housing units by the violence inside of these poorly managed housing complexes. When we gathered for the annual memorial of those who had died on the streets of Skid Row, the longest list of names of those who died came from within these permanent supportive housing complexes.
Don’t get me wrong. I am all for permanent-supportive housing for people most impacted and devastated by years of homelessness. But we need well-managed, safe permanent-supportive housing complete with much needed services that will help people live a hope-filled life. That is not possible when gangs and drug sellers are allowed to occupy the housing units. It will take a continued strong police presence to keep Skid Row and the housing units safe.
I do agree with this statement in the letter: “First, SCI [Safer Cities Initiative] should shift towards community policing. The police on Skid Row should engage residents in a partnership aimed at developing solutions to problems and increasing trust in the police.”
I support this kind of engagement and partnership with police and residents to develop solutions. However, it is unfortunate and insincere for some of the writers to ask for this shift of engagement, partnership and development of solutions when they have unfairly criticized, exaggerated the facts, and even dissuaded their own residents and staff from reporting crime and cooperating with the police.
I also take issue with another statement in the letter: “Second, policing should focus on serious crime, and stop issuing routine citations for such petty offenses as jaywalking, littering, and loitering.”
Jaywalking is dangerous for all, and especially deadly for those who’ve been left on the streets. The writers should better study the “Broken Windows” approach to policing that has helped bring about the transformation on Skid Row. I wish this effective approach would be taken in my own neighborhood, where illegal parking goes unchecked, leads to drug sales, and eventually violence and shootings.
Have the writers already forgetten that it was two of LAPD’s officers on horseback that stopped and apprehended the killer of beautiful young Lily Burk because he was drinking in public on the streets of Skid Row? In the words of Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz of the LAPD, “Samuel was seen drinking beer on a Skid Row street and arrested for investigation of possessing narcotics paraphernalia because he allegedly had a crack cocaine pipe.”
One of the final requests of the writers of the letter has already been started in a strong way: “Third, SCI should prioritize connecting residents to services.”
Agencies like PATH, Union Rescue Mission, Midnight Mission, the Weingart Center and others have already been active in a Streets Or Services (SOS) program that, upon arrest, provides the option for residents of Skid Row and other neighborhoods of choosing a 21 day program instead of jail time. The LAPD and City Attorney’s office have been active players in this option as well.
I am one of the few social service heads to join the LAPD in their community policing. Time after time, I have seen them assist people in need with appropriate services, from expectant mothers to families to men ready to give life another try, the LAPD often refers people to the help they need.
I will say it one more time, the LAPD has done and is doing their part to clean up the streets of downtown LA and transform Skid Row, but their part is only about 10 percent of what needs to be done.
The responsibility for the rest of the transformation lies on the shoulders of social service providers and politicians, those who wrote and received the letter. We need to build more housing opportunities and services throughout Los Angeles, regionalize the solution to homelessness and provide the supportive services and management for people to sustain their housing.
We need to move towards the day when not one precious person will be left on the streets of our city.
Photograph from http://www.labeez.org/2009/10/sweet-revenge-becomes-something-else.php
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