Early in the morning on his way to work, Justin Mammen walks
past blocks of battered tents and the blue-and-gray sleeping bags
of local residents resting on a concrete sidewalk.
This disheveled and unkempt area is Skid Row, sandwiched between
the fashion and financial districts in downtown Los Angeles, and it
presents a stark contrast to the modern buildings visible in the
background.
As a social worker and alumnus of the UCLA Master of Social
Welfare program, Mammen helps the homeless in the heart of Skid
Row, which is home to about 11,000 people.
As he walks into the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul homeless
shelter to begin his work, Mammen said it is hard, almost
unimaginable, to see so many people on the streets.
“I ask myself, “˜How can this be? How are people
forgotten and left on the streets?'” Mammen said.
Carly Sapp, a first-year graduate student in the social welfare
program, comes to Skid Row twice a week. As a volunteer at the
shelter through the UCLA program, she facilitates both individual
and group counseling for clients who drop by the shelter.
In the students’ first year, the program combines
classroom instruction with the student’s choice ““
clinical work with individuals, families and groups or social work
in organizations, communities and policy settings.
In their second year, students complete additional coursework,
choose one of the two method areas as a concentration, and fulfill
specializations in social work, children and youth services, mental
health services, health services or nonprofit services.
With all the counseling and discussions she has mediated,
whether it is about the hardships her clients face being homeless
or the fear that their families may come to discover their
transient living, none of the topics seem to come as a surprise to
Sapp anymore.
“I feel seeing them on a personal level and getting to
know them has been worthwhile, and my perspective on homeless
people has been substantially changed,” Sapp said, admitting
she used to be intimidated by the homeless people she would see on
the streets.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority estimates that of
the 11,000 people who live in the Skid Row area, about 3,000 are
homeless, while most of the rest live in single-room occupancies
““ small rooms with communal bathrooms and kitchens that cost
between $150 and $200 a month.
In the city of Los Angeles, which has the highest proportion of
chronically homeless people of any major metropolitan area in the
U.S., there are an estimated 83,000 homeless living on the streets
and in shelters.
Skid Row has a predominantly black male population, with some
veterans and mentally ill people, and in recent years the number of
women and children has increased.
Jenn Ma-Pham, a first-year graduate student in the social
welfare program and intern in the women’s program at the
shelter, said that where she works she has seen her clients deal
with problems such as prostitution, mental illness, prison,
domestic violence and sexual assault.
But she said people will not come to understand the importance
of working to help people out of homelessness until they understand
the impact on the economic system and the hardships the homeless
face on a daily basis.
“These people are real people. I wish people saw more of
that,” she said.
On top of an old building at the end of Skid Row is the sign
“New Million Dollar,” a remnant of the glamorous area
Skid Row used to be. But the glamor of this area has died, and what
was once a decorated and lavish hotel is now a group of
single-resident occupancies that are home to about 6,000
residents.
Sixty years ago, during World War II, what is now known as Skid
Row was a stopping point for soldiers being shipped off to the
Pacific.
There were book stores, bars, hotels and theaters, all catering
to a blooming population.
But as the hotels grew older and the structures became unsafe to
live in, there was an influx of a residential population, many of
whom could not afford to live elsewhere.
After the Vietnam War, a wave of young veterans came into the
area, many of them unemployed and suffering from trauma or drug
addictions.
As the hotels transformed into single-room occupancies and
shelters moved to the area, what once was a polished neighborhood
slowly deteriorated into the Skid Row of today.
But Mammen said despite all the hard situations, there are the
good moments as well.
After being out of the school system, a child of one of his
clients had enrolled again. She had excitedly pulled out her brand
new backpack and school supplies, showing Mammen how eager she was
to go back to school.
Mammen said he sometimes thinks the problem of homelessness is
so huge it seems impossible to relieve.
“I think, “˜How can we ever stop this?’ But
when I work with the kids or talk to people on a one-on-one
session, you can see the goodness in people and know there is hope
out there,” Mammen said.