Los Angeles Homeless Man Shares the Harsh Reality of Skid Row

This one got me right in the feels, MODS, I've done a search and it didn't come up, so if this is a repost I apologize.

Luke's story of living homeless on Los Angeles's Skid Row is powerful and heartbreaking. No one should have to live like this. No one should have to fight just to survive for food and shelter and live in constant in fear.

Luke came to LA with his wife. Her family invited them to come to live with them, so they jumped on a Greyhound bus. They started calling, and their family never answered. When they arrived in Los Angeles the couple was forced to go to Skid Row where they are now stuck.

[...] "Skid Row is by the bus station. It's where all the shelters are. It's where all the food is. It's where all the resources are located. But Skid Row is a very nasty place" Luke shares in this interview. He goes on to say "[Skid Row] will make it so you are just constantly worried about what you need to survive because everything is being taken from you."

Luke talks about how gangs tax homeless people in Skid Row for living on the sidewalk or in a certain area. If you don't pay, they beat you up or burn down your tent with all of your belongings in it.

Luke's Wife has ended up feeling the desperate need to sell her body simply in order to survive the streets, through which she became pregnant. At the beginning of her pregnancy, she began having seizures. She has since been diagnosed with brain cancer which has left her terrified, as, if I'm understanding him correctly, the treatment carries an 80% risk of infant mortality. (Someone please feel free to correct me if I heard or understood that part wrong)

Towards the end of the interview, Luke was asked: "If you had three wishes, what would they be?"

His response, after a moment of reflection, was:

"It's hard, I haven't wished for anything in so long, because I'm just worried about getting what I need, it's a hard one."

"I wish for my Wife to be better, and I wish I had a family, and I don't know what I'd do with the third one, I'd probably give it away".


I can't imagine having to live this life. After watching the video (08:55), which honestly teared me up, I went into the kitchen to make a cup of tea. That hit me, how I take a simple cup of tea for granted.

While waiting for the kettle to boil, I stood and looked out over my family garden, through my kitchen window, looking at the huge marquee at the bottom, from a large Christening party last weekend.



I think sometimes it's all too easy to lose sight of what we have right in front of us, to take it all for granted.

"Skid Row hurt me in ways I can't ever explain. It made me do things and made see things I wish I would have never seen." ~ Luke



“He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her.”

Ha ha. What does he think? That he's living in some sort of CIVILISED country?

Nah uhh. You'll hear it here.. "Hyuk, I aint not paying fer no nothing I didn't work muh faingers to tha bone just sos someone can comes steals my hard earned stufff.. Nah uhh."

It takes a village to raise a child.. It takes a society to destroy a future.

a reply to: MerkabaTribeEntity

Excellent post, it's good to take things into perspective sometimes. At the end of the day we are all human, and all flawed. It's easy to say someone shouldn't have let this happen to themselves, but it doesn't take much for someone to find themselves down and out.

Her family invited them to come to live with them, so they jumped on a Greyhound bus. They started calling, and their family never answered

So, they hopped a bus to a known nightmare town, and didn't bring enough resources to go back to where they came from?
And her family just... Abandoned them mid trip?

Doesn't sound like we've got the full story here. Who in their right mind would move to a city well known for a bad homeless problem without enough money to leave again should they find themselves without a home?

Maybe places like la and Chicago are just a big part of the evolution of society. Like a bug zapper.

I always try to be vigilant of these realities. At any given moment, hell is only but a few tragedies away from us all.

I think that's whats missed on a lot of folks. Sure, many among the homeless and destitute are there by consequence of their own vices and poor decisions, but just as many find themselves there out of bewildering and all but conspiring 'bad luck' and ill coincidence.

Before he became a popular figure and somewhat quasi-political, I remember the psychologist Jordan Peterson making the same point in that, all it takes is a few bad things out of your control, happening in relevance and in concert with one another to collapse your life. He mentioned a recent client as example, one who had lost his new wife and child during complications at birth. Who later turned to drinking and spending money to cope, who then lost his job due to his drinking, then his mother passed away... all this within a years time.

No good advice can be given, other than to give pause often and be sincerely thankful for whatever you're enjoying in the moment.

originally posted by: SummerRain
Ha ha. What does he think? That he's living in some sort of CIVILISED country?

Nah uhh. You'll hear it here.. "Hyuk, I aint not paying fer no nothing I didn't work muh faingers to tha bone just sos someone can comes steals my hard earned stufff.. Nah uhh."

It takes a village to raise a child.. It takes a society to destroy a future.

Good points.

As I've said in another thread a few days ago, the Japanese will give the homeless sections of the town or a park to keep clean, in return they get paid. I think a similar system could be set up here, after you start getting on your feet we could have better jobs to get you re-assimilated into the job market. In return for the work, adequate housing could be part of the compensation .

a reply to: an325nt

So, they hopped a bus to a known nightmare town, and didn't bring enough resources to go back to where they came from? And her family just... Abandoned them mid trip?

Doesn't sound like we've got the full story here.

Maybe you're right, but in a nation of 330,000,000~, is it really hard to believe anomalies?

Hard life, but not sure if city life will get you out of that rut. I think your chances would be better going to some tiny dot on the map town and looking for work there doing anything vs being one of the swarms of poor in a city.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

That there is a discussion about it, is the best thing ! I do know one thing, it's not about giving things - it's about allowing things. Most of this world is set up to disallow people. I can't set up a tent in any area, illegal camping. I can't hunt for food, etc. All in all, for myself, if I wanted to become off grid, I'd basically be breaking laws. And those laws are not laws protecting anyone or anything, but laws that fall beyond the rights of a person to when born, to live free.

I ain't no court room yeller though. So I'll just bide my time, we all perish. I prefer my time to be simpler and quieter.

But it is refreshing to see a reply that is willing to consider the status quo, and not simply mumble "get a job, hippy" and throw employment sections at people

haha..

originally posted by: CriticalStinker
adequate housing could be part of the compensation .

This is a good discussion. What is adequate to begin with.
I think prison cells are a good setup tbh. a bunk, a toilet, a sink. Maybe a closet, mail chute, a single outlet, communal showers, etc. I think such cell systems could even be made underground with just a little metro like access. The issue arises though when such places become a den of drugs and worse....still, it would get em off the sidewalks and with a place to start a foundation in which to do better.

Drugs is always the big issue in homeless communities....I would venture to say a very large percentage of them are heavily addicted to something (most likely opioids) so free blockers / daytime nurse to administer and help.

originally posted by: rexsblues
hell is only but a few tragedies away from us all.

True words.
Many simply would reject the notion that they could end up so down and out. Some may be right, they have an extensive network of family and friends that will help no matter what happens, but many simply don't have those options and a few steps in life could lead them down a cliff in no time flat.

originally posted by: SummerRain
a reply to: CriticalStinker

That there is a discussion about it, is the best thing ! I do know one thing, it's not about giving things - it's about allowing things. Most of this world is set up to disallow people. I can't set up a tent in any area, illegal camping. I can't hunt for food, etc. All in all, for myself, if I wanted to become off grid, I'd basically be breaking laws. And those laws are not laws protecting anyone or anything, but laws that fall beyond the rights of a person to when born, to live free.

Absolutely, I couldn't agree more. It's the same for me where I am now; it's illegal to sleep in your own vehicle, build any shelter beyond a garden shed without an expensive and more than often impossible to obtain permit, camping of any kind is banned except for a couple of places which charge a fortune, I'm not even allowed to legally keep a single Sea Bass for the table. This island feels more and more like a dictatorship with the passing of every new piece of legislation.

When I lived in the Welsh Black Mountains, I could disappear alone for days on end and be completely self-sufficient without any bother from anyone. No chance of that in the big smoke, too much competition, and way too many snipholes.

a reply to: MerkabaTribeEntity

There but for the grace of God go I...

There is no excuse for this. Everyone deserves -- has a RIGHT -- to a place to live. And it could be easily done. We jump through fricking flaming hoops to make sure that doesn't happen though...

Such equity and justice on earth is a long way off. But when all is said and done and our Judgment Days come to each of us, I expect that there is a special place in hell for those who worked hardest to deny their fellow man (and woman) their fair share of the bounty of the earth given EQUALLY to all of God's beloved children.

a reply to: SummerRain

I try not to comment on something I don't like unless I play with the idea of a solution. While it may not work, or is a horrible idea is besides the point, it starts discussion.

I worked for a logistics company years ago, all of management had a lot on their plate, my boss got bogged down by people just coming to him with complaints, so he said don't come to me with problems, come to me with solutions, and that has always stuck with me.

Some people are just like this though.

originally posted by: CriticalStinker
a reply to: SummerRain

I try not to comment on something I don't like unless I play with the idea of a solution. While it may not work, or is a horrible idea is besides the point, it starts discussion.

I worked for a logistics company years ago, all of management had a lot on their plate, my boss got bogged down by people just coming to him with complaints, so he said don't come to me with problems, come to me with solutions, and that has always stuck with me.

Some people are just like this though.

I had a boss tell me the same thing. Bring me solutions, not problems. He also used to tell me if I ask you for "A", I expect you to have also thought about "B" & "C" as well. This is what makes someone a star player.

a reply to: MerkabaTribeEntity

For what it's worth, this is the same town that confiscated tiny homes built at no cost to some homeless people--donated to these people who praised them, for as small as they were, for being a place where they could sleep and store their belongings behind a locked door, giving them a sense of security they otherwise wouldn't have.

California as a whole and L.A. in particular are terrible places to live if you do not have a marketable skill. Like someone noted, it would be better for these homeless to somehow make it to a small town (there are plenty surrounding the LA area) and start to rebuild a life there.

L.A. and Cali can kiss my ass for how they deal with the less-fortunate citizens of their state. That place is regulated and taxed to death, and a large bulk of it is just pissed away on things that don't matter instead of using for something that could change lives.

In large cities, there will always be a homeless population. While I'm not in the business of promoting that government make such a life comfortable to the point that people want to remain homeless for a free ride, there are definitely better, more dignified ways to provide these people some dignity and a leg up.

originally posted by: MerkabaTribeEntity
This one got me right in the feels, MODS, I've done a search and it didn't come up, so if this is a repost I apologize.

Luke's story of living homeless on Los Angeles's Skid Row is powerful and heartbreaking. No one should have to live like this. No one should have to fight just to survive for food and shelter and live in constant in fear.

Luke came to LA with his wife. Her family invited them to come to live with them, so they jumped on a Greyhound bus. They started calling, and their family never answered. When they arrived in Los Angeles the couple was forced to go to Skid Row where they are now stuck.

[...] "Skid Row is by the bus station. It's where all the shelters are. It's where all the food is. It's where all the resources are located. But Skid Row is a very nasty place" Luke shares in this interview. He goes on to say "[Skid Row] will make it so you are just constantly worried about what you need to survive because everything is being taken from you."

Luke talks about how gangs tax homeless people in Skid Row for living on the sidewalk or in a certain area. If you don't pay, they beat you up or burn down your tent with all of your belongings in it.

Luke's Wife has ended up feeling the desperate need to sell her body simply in order to survive the streets, through which she became pregnant. At the beginning of her pregnancy, she began having seizures. She has since been diagnosed with brain cancer which has left her terrified, as, if I'm understanding him correctly, the treatment carries an 80% risk of infant mortality. (Someone please feel free to correct me if I heard or understood that part wrong)

Towards the end of the interview, Luke was asked: "If you had three wishes, what would they be?"

His response, after a moment of reflection, was:

"It's hard, I haven't wished for anything in so long, because I'm just worried about getting what I need, it's a hard one."

"I wish for my Wife to be better, and I wish I had a family, and I don't know what I'd do with the third one, I'd probably give it away".


I can't imagine having to live this life. After watching the video (08:55), which honestly teared me up, I went into the kitchen to make a cup of tea. That hit me, how I take a simple cup of tea for granted.

While waiting for the kettle to boil, I stood and looked out over my family garden, through my kitchen window, looking at the huge marquee at the bottom, from a large Christening party last weekend.

I think sometimes it's all too easy to lose sight of what we have right in front of us, to take it all for granted.

"Skid Row hurt me in ways I can't ever explain. It made me do things and made see things I wish I would have never seen." ~ Luke



“He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her.”

My BS detector is going off. Having been around the streets enough... here is what is left out of the story most likely.

Yes, he and the wife probably hopped on a bus to LA. However, I'd bet a dozen donuts they were already addicts before they even got to LA.

The reality is that chronically homeless like the guy in the video are going to have 1) mental problems or 2) severe addiction to drugs.

Yes, we can emphatize and feel sorry for them. However, we do them (or ourselves) no favors by sugar coating the real issue. It has nothing to do with affordable housing, capitalism, wealth inequality, or whatever the meme of the day happens to be. The bottom line is that these folks are either junkies or can short of a six pack upstairs. It is that simple.

There are plenty of social services for those who are just "down on their luck". However, those services are not going to sustain someone whose mind is blown from drugs and other problems.

We could have 0% unemployment and companies begging people to work for $50/hr and there will still be homeless people because they are homeless due to their own personal failings. Unless we as society are willing to completely trample on their rights and forcibly remove them from the streets so they can get real help, there is nothing we can do about it.

wife sells herself for money ... that money went where other than a bus ticket out

im guessing drugs and ill guess the family that stoped contact found out there was a drug problem

u steal food when your hungery
u have sex for money when your withdrawing

Never judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes, his shoes.

Everybody has a story to tell.

a reply to: Edumakated

The bottom line is that these folks are either junkies or can short of a six pack upstairs. It is that simple.

Even if that were the whole truth -- it's only PART of the whole truth, and we both know it -- there is still no excuse for allowing such a situation to exist.

Indeed, just knowing this is the case demands even greater effort on our part to address these weaknesses and vulnerabilities of humanity and the systems we create. ESPECIALLY when government claims "ownership" of up to 80% of the land in some western states. With great power comes even greater responsibility.

It's NOT an excuse to throw the baby out with the bath water.... as much as some would like it to be.