There are five-thousand homeless people living on the streets of Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles. The latest census reveals that across Los Angeles, African Americans make up about 9% of the entire population and yet, African Americans account for 40% of the homeless population.
On November 24th, 2022 the Midnight Mission fed several hundred homeless people for Thanksgiving on LA’s Skid Row. The event shines a spotlight on both humanities best instincts and our worst. The best are those who volunteer to cook, feed, and clean up for those in need. The worst in humanity is also on display. How have we become numb to the site of people sleeping on the street? Even on a day of celebration, the casualties of homelessness are evident. On one side of police tape, a feast is being prepared… on the other side of the police tape, men and women are passed out in the street.
MYTH: People living on the streets, eating food from trash cans, peeing and pooping in alleys and sleeping on the streets have made bad choices in their lives and deserve what has happened to them.
REALITY: The vast preponderance of people living on the streets are there because they lost a job, went bankrupt, got divorced, fell into drug addiction, suffer from a serious mental illness or are survivors of profound trauma. Many are the victims of systemic racism that prevented their families from earning the kind of generational wealth so easily afforded whites. The three biggest causes of homelessness are:
- Becoming estranged from your family.
- Being poor.
- Suffering from mental illness.
For the previous 18 months, writer and director, Jon Hotchkiss has been embedded in LA’s homeless community as he documents a year in their lives. In April of 2021, a California District Court judge gave the city of Los Angeles 180 days to find shelter for the 5000 homeless living on the streets of Skid Row. In his new documentary, 180 Days: Homeless to Housed? Hotchkiss takes you inside the California’s worst catastrophe.
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