For more than two months, a Colombian family with a 6-year-old boy has been living out of a motorhome on Skid Row’s Stanford Street, trying to raise a child in one of the most infamous stretches of downtown Los Angeles. Parents and advocates describe tents crowding the sidewalks, open drug use and occasional fires as the day-to-day backdrop for newcomers trying to get their bearings.
The family recently spoke with reporters about what life has been like. A New York Post interview identifies the father as Angelo and the child as Dylan, and reports that Angelo crossed the U.S. border from Colombia two years ago. According to the Post, the family says their motorhome was set on fire, and quotes Angelo bluntly assessing the situation: “Skid Row is not a good place for a kid.” The parents told the paper they feel effectively trapped on the downtown blocks while they try to work and care for their son.
Skid Row Action Plan Aims To Move People Indoors
Los Angeles County is in the middle of a multi-year effort to change what families like this encounter on Skid Row. In 2022, the county launched its Skid Row Action Plan, steering roughly $280 million toward interim and permanent housing, health care, and supportive services in the neighborhood. According to the county’s Skid Row Action Plan, the initiative includes new interim housing beds, a 24/7 “Safe Landing” facility, and targeted outreach teams tasked with connecting people to services.
The plan was kick-started by a $60 million state grant, along with additional city and county funding. Officials say it is already moving people indoors. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, the county placed nearly 1,000 people into permanent housing and about 2,000 into interim housing during the plan’s initial phase.
Family’s Story And Local Reaction
Service providers and some advocates say the family’s situation captures the gap between big-budget plans and the basic question that matters to people on the sidewalk: Is there a safe bed tonight? Kate Monroe, CEO of VetComm, told the New York Post that some arrivals “realize the American dream is an illusion” after experiencing street life. Monroe is listed online as the founder and CEO of VetComm, a company that works with veterans.
The region’s homeless-services system is sprawling and complicated, with hundreds of millions of dollars flowing through county and city programs each year while a web of agencies and nonprofit providers handle outreach, shelter, and housing. For a sense of the scale and mechanics of that system and its funding, see coverage from LAist and information from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
For the family parked on Stanford Street, those layers of policy and funding can feel distant while tents and RVs line the curbs outside their window. Their case highlights questions that advocates and officials are still trying to solve in real time: how to move vulnerable households into safe interim housing more quickly, and how newly arrived families, including undocumented households, can actually tap into services while the Skid Row Action Plan scales up, a local test noted in reporting by the Los Angeles Times.
