Impact of L.A. County’s wildfire evacuations ripples into Skid Row
Two weeks after Raven Edgar began living in an interim housing shelter on Skid Row, she ended up back on the streets.
Last week, as the wildfires broke out and scorched thousands of acres across L.A., the Weingart Center on Skid Row took in about 19 unhoused people who had been impacted by the fires, according to Jericho Kilpatrick, a spokesperson for the organization. Around 3 a.m., Edgar woke up to a voice over the loudspeaker system.
“Fire warning,” the voice said. “Please evacuate the building.”
Edgar said she went outside but didn’t see any firetrucks. She asked other residents if they knew what was going on, but they didn’t have answers. Kilpatrick didn’t have details on where the unhoused people were evacuated from. Facing overcrowding at the shelter and afraid that a fire might break out, Edgar decided to go back on the streets.
“I’m on the ninth floor,” she said. “I’m not about to wait for a fire to start to see how I can get out of the building. I feel safer on the streets. I don’t want to burn alive.”
Edgar stayed on the streets for a few days until Friday, when she met Jessenia Garcia, a 45-year-old board member for the Sidewalk Project, a nonprofit on Skid Row offering services for homeless people.
Garcia persuaded Edgar to come with her to stay at the Sidewalk Project’s drop-off center on Skid Row, which was also serving as a makeshift shelter during the wildfires.
“She saved me for tonight, probably for the rest of my life,” Edgar said.
People already battling homelessness have had their lives uprooted during what are shaping up to be the most destructive wildfires in L.A. history, facing displacement and potential health issues from the wildfire smoke.
“What’s really disturbing is that we’ve noticed our marginalized communities are getting further marginalized in this process,” said Soma Snakeoil, co-founder and executive director of the Sidewalk Project. “There are only a few groups focusing on the needs of unhoused people.”
When Hollywood was being evacuated, for instance, Snakeoil and other volunteers went around the neighborhood and learned that nobody had told those living on the streets about the evacuation order or the serious implications the wildfire smoke had for their health.
After the Sunset fire sparked in the Hollywood Hills, mandatory evacuation orders were issued for people between Laurel Canyon Boulevard and the 101 Freeway, from Mulholland Drive on the north to Hollywood Boulevard on the south. The evacuation was sent to people’s phones and announced online but didn’t reach those living on the streets.
“Nobody came for them,” she said. “No one had told them anything.”
Snakeoil said that she and a team of about 50 volunteers and 19 staff members are operating a 24/7 drop-off and distribution center on Skid Row. They’re handing out pamphlets with information about the fires, along with masks, disposable oxygen canisters, food and other supplies. The center was also operating as a makeshift shelter with about 30 cots.
Union Station, another organization offering homeless services, had to evacuate three housing facilities due to the wildfires: the Family Center in Pasadena, which offers interim family housing; Heritage Square South in Pasadena, which offers supportive housing for low-income seniors; and Mirador Apartments in Altadena, which provides permanent housing for seniors. Mirador Apartments also caught fire and sustained damage.
Among the three facilities, nearly 160 people were displaced and had to be transferred to the Pasadena Convention Center, according to Tian Martinez, associate director for marketing and communications at Union Station’s Pasadena center.
“This was their home and to be displaced and evacuated during this time is heartbreaking,” Martinez said. “You find stability, and to have that taken away from you can be extremely triggering.”
Martinez said that the wildfires had halted the process for those in interim housing who were on the path to find permanent housing, because organizations still don’t know the extent of the damage to their facilities and what permanent housing solutions will be left.
Homeless organizations will also have to contend with how to address the huge influx of people who have been made newly unhoused by the wildfires and don’t yet know how to navigate the system.
“This is going to be a long-haul process,” Martinez said. “It’s gonna take a couple years to get things back to quasi-normalcy.”
Katie Hill, chief executive of Union Station Homeless Services, is concerned about what will happen to people who were already down on their luck before the fires, including her organization’s existing clients.
“People who were previously homeless are basically not going to be able to find rental housing now because a lot of people who lost homes have a lot more means,” she said. They “are going to have to leave the area.”
Jim, a homeless man who said he was evacuated last week and declined to provide his last name, was smoking a cigarette near the Pasadena Convention Center on Sunday afternoon. Inside, men were sleeping on cots under thin white blankets with the American Red Cross insignia.
He said he was worried about the availability of housing after the fires.
“It’s going to be hard to find a spot” to live, he said. “It’s a tough time out here.”
Joe O’Neill, also a Sidewalk Project board member, said some people’s tents were blown away by the fierce winds. The reduced air quality during the wildfires couldalso worsen the drug overdose rate for the unhoused community.
A drug overdose starves the brain of oxygen, causing damage or death. O’Neill said wildfire smoke could exacerbate an overdose by diminishing lung capacity.
“We’re worried an overdose could happen faster or be more severe,” he said.
Three years ago, Edgar became homeless and was living in her car, then began living in a tent on Venice Beach.
She then turned to methamphetamines and other drugs as a way to cope.
Two weeks ago, she was approached by members of the CIRCLE program, which is aimed at addressing calls for service involving homeless people. She agreed to go to the Weingart Center on Skid Row for a place to stay.
Edgar plans on living at the Sidewalk Project’s facility as long as she can. She said being displaced from yet another housing situation has made her lose hope.
“It’s making me want to give up,” she added.
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