Two weeks after Raven Edgar started living in a Skid Row homeless shelter, she ended up back on the streets.
Last Tuesday, as wildfires burned thousands of acres across Los Angeles, the Weingart Center on Skid Row took in people from another shelter that had been evacuated by the Eaton Fire. Ta. Around 3 a.m., Edgar woke up to the sound of voices coming from the speakers.
I heard a voice say, “Fire alarm.” “Please evacuate the building.”
Edgar said he went outside and didn’t see a fire truck. She asked other residents if they knew what was going on, but got no answers. Details on the number of unhoused people who were evacuated from the shelter with Edgar were not immediately available, and the Weingart Center did not respond to a request for comment. The shelter was overcrowded and Edgar, worried that a fire might break out, decided to return to the streets.
Ernie Panaligan, a member of the San Diego Music Church, unloads supplies at the Sidewalk Project Center.
(Karlin Stiel/For the Times)
“I’m on the ninth floor,” she said. “I’m not going to wait for the fire to start and then figure out how to get out of the building. I feel safer on the street. I don’t want to burn myself alive.”
Edgar remained on the street for several days until Friday, when he met Jessenia Garcia, 45, director of the Sidewalk Project, a nonprofit that serves the unhoused on Skid Row.
Garcia convinced Edgar to come with him to the Sidewalk Projects drop-off center on Skid Row. The center also serves as a temporary evacuation center during wildfires.
“She saved me tonight, probably the rest of my life,” Edgar said.
People already struggling with homelessness have been uprooted during what is shaping up to be the most destructive wildfire in LA history, facing evacuations and potential health issues from wildfire smoke.
“What is truly alarming is that we have found that marginalized communities are being further marginalized in this process,” said Soma Snakeoil, co-founder and executive director of Sidewalk Project. he said. “There are only a few organizations that focus on the needs of the unhoused.”
For example, when Hollywood was being evacuated, Snake Oil and other volunteers walked around the neighborhood, but no one told the people living on the streets about the evacuation order or the serious health effects of wildfire smoke. I learned that.
Mandatory evacuation orders were issued for people from Mulholland Drive in the north to Hollywood Boulevard in the south, between Laurel Canyon Boulevard and the 101 Freeway, after the Sunset Fire broke out in the Hollywood Hills. Evacuation advisories were communicated by phone and online, but did not reach people living on the streets.
“No one came for them,” she said. “No one said anything to them.”
Raven Edgar is a resident of the Sidewalk Project drop-off center on Skid Row, which also serves as a temporary shelter during wildfires.
(Summer Lin/Los Angeles Times)
Snakeoil said she and a team of about 50 volunteers and 19 staff members operate a 24/7 pickup and distribution center on Skid Row. They are distributing pamphlets with information about the fires, as well as masks, disposable oxygen cylinders, food and other supplies. The center also operates as a temporary evacuation center with about 30 cots.
Union Station, another organization that provides homeless services, was forced to evacuate three housing facilities due to the wildfire. Heritage Square South in Pasadena provides supportive housing for low-income seniors. Mirador Apartments in Altadena provides permanent housing for seniors. Mirador Apartments was also damaged by the fire.
Nearly 160 people across the three facilities had to be evacuated and transferred to the Pasadena Convention Center, said Tian Martinez, associate director of marketing and communications for Union Station’s Pasadena Center.
“This was their home. To be displaced and displaced during this time is heartbreaking,” Martinez said. “You find stability, and when that is taken away, it can be very irritating.”
Martinez said organizations do not yet know the extent of damage to their properties or what permanent housing solutions will look like, so people living in temporary housing due to the wildfires will not be able to find permanent housing. He said he had suspended the search process.
Homeless organizations will also have to grapple with the question of how to deal with a large influx of people newly displaced by the wildfires and who don’t yet know how to navigate the system.
“This is going to be a long process,” Martinez said. “It will take several years to get the situation back to near normal.”
Volunteers help unload supplies at the Sidewalk Project Center, which serves as a temporary shelter on Skid Row for people without shelter during wildfires.
(Karlyn Steele/For the Times)
Katie Hill, CEO of Union Station Homeless Services, worries about what will happen to people who were already down on their luck before the fire, including her organization’s existing clients.
“People who were previously homeless are basically not going to be able to find rental housing now because many of the people who lost their homes have more resources,” she says. They “will have to leave the area.”
Jim, a homeless man who said he was evacuated last week and declined to give his last name, was smoking a cigarette Sunday afternoon near the Pasadena Convention Center. Inside, men slept on cots under thin white blankets emblazoned with American Red Cross insignia.
He said he was worried about whether he would be able to secure housing after the fire.
“Finding a place to live will be difficult,” he says. “These are tough times.”
Joe O’Neill, who is also a director of the Sidewalk Project, said some people’s tents were blown away by the strong winds. Decreased air quality during wildfires can also exacerbate drug overdose rates in unhoused communities.
Drug overdose can starve the brain of oxygen, causing damage or death. O’Neill said wildfire smoke can reduce lung capacity and worsen an overdose.
Cesar Peralta, a member of the San Diego Music Church, unloads supplies at the Sidewalk Project Center.
(Karlyn Steele/For the Times)
“We are concerned that overdoses could happen sooner or be more severe,” he said.
Three years ago, Edgar went from being homeless and living in his car to living in a tent on Venice Beach.
She then turned to methamphetamine and other drugs as a way to cope.
Two weeks ago, she was approached by members of the CIRCLE program, which aims to address requests for assistance regarding homeless people. She agreed to go to the Weingart Center on Skid Row to find a place to stay.
Edgar plans to live in the Sidewalk Project facility for as long as possible. She said she lost hope after being evicted from yet another housing situation.
“I’m starting to feel like giving up,” she added.
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