Mike Juma sat on the finish of the mattress in his ninth-floor one-bedroom condo in downtown Los Angeles, staring on the mountains seen from his window.
“I don’t like high-rises,” he mentioned. “But look at that gorgeous view. That’s what they call a million-dollar view.”
A 12 months in the past, Juma, 64, was in a vastly completely different place in life. He was dwelling in a tent on Skid Row, promoting cigarettes to become profitable and sleeping with a samurai-style sword by his aspect for defense.
Now, he’s in a furnished condo listening to the gentle whooshing sound of the air conditioner.
Juma is amongst a wave of unhoused individuals who have moved from Skid Row into interim and everlasting housing over the past 12 months. It’s all a part of a $280-million county initiative to deal with greater than 2,500 individuals, boosting well being, drug therapy and associated companies within the 50-block neighborhood that has grow to be synonymous with poverty and homelessness.
Mike Juma reveals off his kitchen on the Weingart Tower in dowtown Los Angeles, the place he moved in early August.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Instances)
The initiative, dubbed the Skid Row Motion Plan, is also an effort to counter the systemic racism that has pushed individuals to Skid Row — the place an outsize variety of Black individuals fill sidewalks and encampments — by attempting to rework the neighborhood right into a thriving neighborhood.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis, whose district consists of Skid Row, initiated the challenge, which launched a 12 months in the past after months of planning and organizing. To this point, the county has moved almost 1,000 homeless individuals into everlasting housing and almost 2,000 into interim housing corresponding to shelters and transitional housing, in line with information not too long ago launched by the county’s Housing for Well being program, which is main the challenge.
The information additionally confirmed that youthful individuals between the ages of 18 and 40 had been extra prone to be positioned in interim housing, whereas older individuals ages 55 and over had been positioned in everlasting housing.
On the time of the challenge’s launch, 4,402 individuals had been experiencing homelessness on Skid Row, with greater than half dwelling in a tent or makeshift shelter, lots of them Black or Latino, in line with the 2022 Better Los Angeles Homeless Depend. At the moment, the inhabitants stands at 3,791, a lower of almost 14%. The variety of individuals dwelling outdoor additionally decreased by 22% over the past two years from 2,695 to 2,112.
“We got very focused with this,” mentioned Elizabeth Boyce, deputy director for Housing for Well being. “We stuck with the main components of solving homelessness and things we know we can deliver on.”
Solis praised the company and its companions for the short turnaround.
Authorities officers have lengthy tried to handle homelessness on Skid Row. Within the early Seventies, for example, proponents of growth needed to demolish a lot of the world whereas others advocated to protect the neighborhood’s low-income housing and companies as a strategy to maintain individuals on Skid Row, which grew to become often called the “containment plan.”
Zev Yaroslavsky in downtown L.A. in 2014. As a county supervisor, Yaroslavsky launched Mission 50 to assist individuals who had been chronically homeless.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Instances)
In 2007, then-Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky launched Mission 50, a pilot program aimed toward housing 50 of essentially the most chronically homeless individuals on Skid Row by a housing-first strategy. He sought to develop it however was unsuccessful.
Boyce mentioned what makes the Skid Row Motion Plan distinctive is that it was designed to handle the advanced wants of the neighborhood with assist from Skid Row residents, service suppliers and different stakeholders. It additionally leverages sources the county is already utilizing to handle the homelessness disaster within the area.
“We were really thinking from the beginning,” she mentioned, “how do we create thoughtful, compelling change … not changing the people that live there but changing the support that people receive.”
“You have to have some early wins and show you’re talking business.”
In June 2023, the challenge bought a major funding increase when Housing for Well being and its companions, the town of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Homeless Companies Authority, acquired a $60-million state grant to fund the challenge by 2026.
Boyce mentioned the funds had been essential within the challenge’s early success. They helped create 350 new interim housing items and 750 new everlasting items, and elevated and improved outreach companies.
The funds have additionally helped set up a “safe landing” within the foyer of the Cecil Lodge; individuals can stroll in at any time of the day or evening to obtain medical care and housing companies. The cash additionally created a navigational heart in Skid Row to assist suppliers entry interim housing for shoppers as quick as doable.
Part of the state grant additionally went to assist a program run by the Downtown Ladies’s Heart that goals to finish homelessness for girls and households in Skid Row. The funding allowed 453 girls to be positioned in everlasting housing and 737 into interim housing, which contributed to a 42% drop in unsheltered girls from 2022 to 2024, in line with the homeless depend information.
County officers say their work is way from over. They plan to create residency advisory councils that may oversee key areas of the Skid Row Motion Plan. Moreover, they anticipate to construct a Hurt Discount Well being Hub to supply drug testing and detox beds and to supply referrals to rehab facilities, amongst different companies. There are also plans to determine a protected web site zone — a big out of doors park on Skid Row the place individuals can go to and have interaction with numerous businesses to entry authorities advantages and applications.
Juma contemplates the view from his ninth-floor room in Weingart Tower 1.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Instances)
Final week, on the ninth flooring of Weingart Tower, Juma lighted a cigarette.
“It’s like adjusting to a new car smell,” he mentioned of his new digs, his voice raspy. It’s “different.”
Juma’s tower sits on Skid Row and consists of 228 studios and 47 one-bedroom residences. At the least 40 items are reserved for veterans. Juma served within the Marines.
How Juma ended up on the road just isn’t clear. He mentioned he as soon as had a cross-country trucking enterprise, delivering fish. There have been cash and tax points, and ultimately he misplaced the enterprise and every thing that got here with having a steady job.
A passion for ingesting was a part of the story, though he says that wasn’t an element.
When he grew to become homeless, he mentioned he returned to an space he was conversant in. He arrange a tent close to sixth Avenue and Towne Avenue, not removed from seafood companies.
He mentioned he bought used to dwelling outdoor, even when it was powerful at occasions. At evening, he not often slept amid individuals screaming, loud music and preventing. Then there was the early site visitors of economic vehicles.
“You hear everything,” he mentioned. “You’re like a blind man, you hear footsteps, you can’t sleep.”
Final 12 months, he mentioned he was able to get off the streets after he injured a person throughout a combat. Standing over the bleeding man, he mentioned, he knew he’d had it.
“I almost killed him,” he mentioned. “I’ve had a lot of fights; you sometimes come out a winner, but you never really win.”
So he approached outreach employees with Housing for Well being. They shortly discovered him a short lived place to remain. He then utilized for supportive housing and waited a number of months. Every week in the past, he was informed an condo was obtainable for him.
Mike Juma, who served within the Marines, has a brand new place to name residence on Skid Row.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Instances)
He mentioned he had spent the three days since he moved into his new condo sleeping. Behind him on the mattress was a brown pillow with the phrases: “God has not forgotten me.”
Juma mentioned the condo got here with a brand new fridge, range, tv and, fortunately, a toilet. He mentioned the kitchen cupboards had been full of plates, pots and cooking utensils.
However the window is essentially the most symbolic characteristic of his new residence. As he considers the chances that lie forward, he can glimpse his previous life. Excessive up in his room, he mentioned, he could make out the road the place he lived in a tent.
Generally, he mentioned, he seems down and thinks: “Things did turn out all right in the end.”
