Lisa Thompkins has found herself on and off Skid Row for the
past four years.
It began when her husband of 11 years started hitting her and
she left him.
Unable to work due to back injuries acquired during her service
in the U.S. Air Force, which were exacerbated by a fall years
later, Thompkins began drinking to cope with her situation.
She now spends her days sitting on a crate near Wall Street, her
nights in friends’ subsidized hotel rooms or shelters ““
if there are beds available.
In recent weeks, Thompkins has noticed a change on Skid Row, as
an increase of police officers in the area has led to hundreds of
drug-related arrests.
The arrests have been applauded by some as an effort to clean up
the area and reduce drug use in the neighborhood, but others have
criticized the arrests for sometimes being unwarranted. Critics
have also said increasing arrests is not a solution to the homeless
and drug problem.
Thompkins said these arrests have been a disruption of normal
life in the area.
“The police are trying to get rid of drugs; in the
meantime, they’re just (disturbing) everybody else,”
she said of people like her, who partake in no drugs except
alcohol.
In the past five weeks, the Los Angeles Police Department has
taken measures to decrease drug use and sales in the downtown Los
Angeles area, whose streets, sidewalks and parks are home to almost
2,000 people.
Fifty new officers were assigned to the area, and since the end
of August, 737 felony narcotics arrests have been made, said Andrew
Smith, commanding officer of the division that patrols Skid
Row.
Of these, most were for “sales and possession for sales of
heroin and rock cocaine in the downtown area,” he said.
“We’ve been arresting narcotics dealers by the
boatload,” Smith added.
Smith said the sheer number of narcotics arrests that have been
made in the area has improved safety and decreased illegal drug
use.
“There are a lot less drugs being openly smoked, displayed
and injected,” he said.
Tina Lee, a graduate student in the Department of Social Welfare
at the UCLA School of Public Affairs, interns at the Society of
Saint Vincent de Paul homeless shelter on Skid Row and works with
people who are on their way to living independently.
She said her clients have mentioned that some people with no
drug affiliation have been arrested on drug charges.
“Individual accounts from clients say not everyone
arrested is using or holding drugs,” Lee said.
She added that her clients have told her they believe the
arrests are being used as a way to get harmless people off the
streets and into jail.
Lee said a narcotics arrest greatly hinders a homeless
person’s ability to find a job and stabilize their lives
because many employers won’t hire people with a narcotics
arrest on their criminal record.
“It’s very difficult to get rehabilitated because
it’s much harder for them to find employment,” she
said.
Lee said concern for the city’s appearance may be a reason
for the increase of arrests in the area.
“Basically, the city doesn’t want to see people on
the streets because it looks bad,” Lee added.
While the drug users and dealers may be temporarily removed from
Skid Row, Smith said the area jails are unable to accommodate those
taken into custody.
Persons convicted of sales of rock cocaine and heroin are
sentenced to 180 days in jail, but typically only serve about 10
percent of their time because of overcrowding, he said.
“The reality of it is these guys are not spending much
time in jail at all, and that’s no incentive not to
sell,” he said.
A collaborative effort between the LAPD and shelters has grown
out of a desire to provide aid for people living on the streets
““ many of whom suffer from mental illness, addiction or
both.
But according to shelter employees, there are more people in
need of shelter than there are resources available to help
them.
“Our shelter is always full,” said Justin Mammen, a
social worker at Society of Saint Vincent de Paul and alumnus of
the UCLA Master of Social Welfare program.
Thompkins said she often has trouble finding a place to sleep in
the area.
“There’s not a lot of housing for women right
now,” she said. “There just aren’t enough
beds.”
Thompkins participated in a program through American Veterans
for help with her alcohol program but has since returned to Skid
Row and to her addiction. She said she feels stuck in her current
situation, as she waits for monetary aid from Disabled American
Veterans.
She said her two college-age children, whom she sent to live
with relatives in Georgia when she started to drink too much, do
not know where their mother is living.
“I don’t want to have to tell them I’ve been
living on the street,” she said with tears in her eyes.
“I don’t want them to be ashamed of me like I’m
ashamed of me.”
Many parties connected to the homelessness situation in Los
Angeles agree that an increase in support services and affordable
housing is necessary to decrease the homeless population.
Though there is a concentration of services available to
homeless people in the Skid Row area, Mammen mentioned the
difficulty for people to get out of their situation in the
drug-infested environment.
“Trying to kick a drug addiction here is like trying to go
on the Atkins diet while living in a bakery,” he said.