The Pit Stop program makes it easier to go in Skid Row. While maintaining as much distance as possible, people are lined-up on a downtown sidewalk, waiting. Some read newspapers, others engage…
Con artists exploit people overtaken by fear during the pandemic. Some threats associated with the current pandemic are real and serious. People are getting sick and dying. Other threats are real but…
The most familiar phrase in the 14th Amendment, Section One (of five)—and most commonly litigated—is “equal protection of the laws.” The wording of the Equal Protection clause of the United States Constitution…
Let me start by saying my heart breaks for anyone living in fear, those showing symptoms, and everyone who has lost a loved one. Truly, there are no words. I’m lucky. I’m…
I was raised by my Depression-era grandparents who grew up in very large, very poor families. As a child, I sat beside my grandmother in front of the fireplace, my grandfather across…
Aycil Yeltan’s second short film, Topanga, the story of a hearing-impaired, homeless woman and her journey to find a life purpose through her art, is currently screening in festivals and raking in…
Tents, lean-tos, off-leash dogs, rats, and mounds of trash line many of the streets of Los Angeles. These areas can look more like sets out of some dystopian movie than like communities…
In the middle of Skid Row, men and women filter into Homeless Health Care of Los Angeles (HHCLA) on a sunny, Thursday morning. Each holds a bag containing used syringes. These needles…
I walked along a side street in the downtown neighborhood known as Skid Row. Tents and lean-tos lined the sidewalk, so as much as possible, I kept to the middle of the…
Every year I go out on New Year’s Eve, and wherever I go, I’m sure to end up singing the scattered lines I know of “Auld Lang Syne”. In my off-key best,…