Water Insecurity on Skid Row
What is your favorite brand of water? Fiji? Smart Water? Dasani? Anything but Arrowhead, right? This lighthearted debate over which water brands are the worst and which are the best has taken over social media — to the extent that TikTok has created an entire filter dedicated to assigning people a brand of water based on their appearance. For many of us reading this paper — myself included — having a water brand preference or jokingly criticizing Arrowhead is not given much of a second thought. In fact, our day-to-day access to safe, temperature-regulated water for drinking and cleaning too often goes unappreciated, especially within our USC bubble. However, for millions of families around the globe and in our own communities, even accessing safe, drinkable water can be a daily struggle.
The residents of Skid Row, the “epicenter of LA’s addiction crisis” (Rufo 2020), are one of California’s greatest victims of water insecurity. But how did that come to be? Hadley Meares from Curbed Los Angeles describes the evolution of Skid Row. The origin of the neighborhood’s notoriety dates back to the 19th century, during the construction of the transcontinental railroad. What is now South-Central Los Angeles was the final stop on the tracks, bringing in men — particularly, black and hispanic men — from all over the country who were looking for work and new opportunities. Already, new slang to describe these men spread like wildfire across Southern California: “The ‘hobo’…was the ‘creation of the railroads,’ …the ‘fly bum’ was a city dweller who lived in cheap hotels…[and] the ‘dynamiter’ …made his meager living as a journeyman laborer” (Meares 2017). To accommodate and entertain these tired, laboring men, low-cost rental housing, bars, and brothels sprouted on nearly every corner. With drunkenness and other forms of intoxication increasing in frequency, crime and violence arose within the area, and the police activity that was supposed to help regulate only made matters worse. As a result, South-Central Los Angeles developed an infamous reputation, and eventually adopted the name Skid Row (2017).
From the jump, Skid Row lacked the infrastructure and funding necessary to support the development of a self-sufficient community; basic utilities, such as electricity and water, were not readily available to every member in the community. Today, “residents of Skid Row often trap rain runoff — possibly full of waterborne pathogens — or tap into fire hydrants” in order to quench their thirst (Aoun 2021). Beyond the dangers posed by the consumption of unsanitized water from rain and fire hydrants, inadequate access to clean water for hygiene services has led to “cases of hepatitis A and murine typhus outbreaks” (Portillo et al.).
To mitigate these problems, California has passed various legislation aimed at expanding water supplies and increasing water accessibility to underserved communities. One of the most notable legislation is the Human Right to Water Act (HRWA), established in 2012, which grants every human the right to clean, affordable, accessible water. Under the HRWA are several bills that target specific challenges to water accessibility; for instance, one bill assesses “low-income affordability challenges and a plan for statewide low-income rate assistance,” while another evaluates “supply vulnerabilities and risk for small water systems” (Balazs et al. 2021). While the HRWA successfully helped, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic threatened much of the act’s progress. To comply with Covid safety precautions, the mere five public water fountains on Skid Row were shut off and have yet to be turned back on. Because water availability in California grew even more scarce after the pandemic, the state issued a moratorium on essential utility shutoffs. Although the moratorium provided immediate relief during the peak of the pandemic, it now creates a long term “utility debt burden” (González et al. 2021) for California’s low-income residents. Although the HRWA initially made progress, its susceptibility to Covid restrictions is a severe obstacle, as the lifespan of the pandemic is unknown. In this, it is important to implement legislation that can provide immediate relief without causing future burdens. Taking into account these new circumstances, an adaptation of the bills within the HRWA to work around Covid restrictions may provide greater aid by.
On a more local scale, in 2014, the “Los Angeles City Council authorized a $3.7-million skid row cleanup plan” (Holland 2014) to alleviate squalor that contributes to the growth and spread of fatal disease, such as the hepatitis A and murine typhus outbreaks mentioned previously. At that time, the Council heavily emphasized efforts to simply sanitize the neighborhood without “destroying personal property that homeless people keep in the streets” (Holland 2014). However, despite the Council’s original intent, local police today actively disrupt and destroy personal property in an effort to push out and further displace the homeless that reside on Skid Row. This so-called “street sweeping” provides absolutely no benefit to the homeless population of the community. Instead, “street sweeping” soley caters to the more affluent members of the community that want to elevate their neighborhood by eliminating the appearance of poverty.
This goes to show the perspective of governmental organizations towards the unsheltered population: because the homeless are not able to financially contribute to the city and state — via taxes — governmental organizations disregard the needs and desires of the homeless. In other words, because the homeless population does not benefit the government, the government does not allocate sufficient resources to support the homeless population in return. This also creates the notion that homeless people are simply a burden to be rid of, rather than humans that deserve compassion and basic rights. This regression of the Los Angeles City Council from well-intentioned initiatives to dismissive and destructive protocols reflects patterns of systemic biases against low-income people — of whom a majority are black and hispanic.
As an alternative, next steps should be to stray away from governmental policy and transition towards non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Already, NGOs offer a higher quality of aid as they often have the best interest of the underserved at heart, rather than fiending for a profit. A local NGO that supports Skid Row residents weekly is Water Drop Los Angeles. Water Drop Los Angeles heavily emphasizes human connection and forming personal relationships through conversation with each individual on Skid Row, rather than simply viewing volunteer efforts as saving people in need. In fact, Water Drop Los Angeles is “consistent about having an anti-savior positioning” (Kanbarian 2020). Just as much as the residents of Skid Row need water, they also need to be treated with humanity and kindness. Because Water Drop Los Angeles views Skid Row residents as humans that deserve compassion and basic rights, rather than a burden to be rid of, its coordinators and volunteers have genuine intentions to support and aid their neighbors.
Further, where the Human Right to Water Act failed in terms of maneuvering around challenges posed by Covid, Water Drop Los Angeles adapts. Water Drop Los Angeles began their work in the summer of 2020, during the peak of the pandemic. As a result, their programs and protocols were structured to accommodate and abide by Covid precautions. While both HRWA and Water Drop Los Angeles made efforts to practice Covid safety, the different approaches from each organization resulted in completely opposite impacts. Whereas the HRWA created greater challenges for Skid Row residents in order to follow Covid precautions — through the shutoff of public water fountains — Water Drop Los Angeles encourages its volunteers to practice Covid-safe procedures for the sake of keeping the Skid Row community as healthy as possible. Specifically, the initiative to Water Drop Los Angeles to donate sanitization tools, such as disinfectant wipes, liquid hand sanitizer, and masks, significantly mitigates the spread of Covid on Skid Row, considering residents are forced to live in close proximity and regularly share common spaces.
Another NGO that uses Covid safety procedures to support the Skid Row community is Water Box. Water Box aims to alleviate water insecurity by setting up public water fountains and sanitation spaces, such as bathrooms and showers, called “Water Boxes” on Skid Row. A Water Box is a “water dispensing station that can be hooked up to any water line. The water [is chilled and] passes through three filters and a UV treatment, ensuring it’s free of lead, bacteria and other contaminants” (Aoun 2021). Opposite to the approach of the HRWA in removing public water supplies, Water Box creates more public water supplies. Although the communal nature of the Water Boxes still threaten the spread of Covid, these stations create opportunities for hygiene services that were previously unavailable to Skid Row residents. As seen through the work of both Water Drop Los Angeles and Water Box, investment in NGOs rather than governmental organizations is significantly more beneficial to the underserved community of Skid Row, as NGOs intentionally create programs and protocols to address the needs of Skid Row residents.
Now that we have established the extent to which NGOs alleviate water insecurity in one American city, it is important to examine how other countries are dealing with their own water insecurities in similar ways. For instance, during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in the West African city of Sierra Leone, “structured community engagement initiatives [through] the Community Led Ebola Action (CLEA) approach” (Bedson et al. 1) consisted of a network of mobilisers across various districts in Sierra Leone. Likewise to how Sierra Leone handled the Ebola epidemic by large-scale community engagement, Los Angeles dealt with the Covid pandemic on Skid Row through NGOs. In fact, some of Los Angeles’s initiatives were “inspired by Congo’s earlier community efforts” (DiGuiseppi et al. 9). This demonstrates how the global struggle of water insecurity — and the lack of international law to relieve it — can lead to globalized non-governmental efforts.
Works Cited
Aoun, Gabi. “Fresh Water is a Right, Not a Luxury.” Kindhumans, 18 Mar. 2021.
https://kindhumans.com/kindhumans-blog/fresh-water-is-a-right-not-a-luxury/.
Bedson, Jamie, et al. “Community engagement in outbreak response: lessons from the
2014–2016 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone.” BMJ Global Health, vol. 5, no. 8, Aug. 2020, pp. 1–13. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2551730259?parentSessionId=Oua5SpBGzP7vDeSNGdFKO3eHnXWZdIVq%2BdgUQzJx6mg%3D&pq-origsite=primo&accountid=14749.
DiGuiseppi, Graham, et al. “Mobilizing a Community–Academic Partnership to Provide DIY
Handwashing Stations to Skid Row Residents During COVID-19.” Health Promotion Practice, vol. 22, no. 1, Jan. 2021, pp. 9–12. https://journals-sagepub-com.libproxy2.usc.edu/doi/pdf/10.1177/1524839920953092.
Gonzalez, Silvia, et al. “Keeping the Lights and Water On: COVID-19 and Utility Debt in Los
Angeles’ Communities of Color.” UCLA: Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, 3 May 2021. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3317w1fb#main.
Holland, Gale. “CALIFORNIA; Skid Row Cleanup Funding is OKd; The $3.7-Million Plan
Includes Bathroom Access, Stepped-Up Street Cleaning and ‘Valet Cart Storage.’.” Los Angeles Times, 14 May 2014. https://www.proquest.com/docview/1524065342?accountid=14749&parentSessionId=dTsDhR7PKknxafOkEqpMZymeMSERteu9QpHKndABVm0%3D&pq-origsite=primo.
Kanbarian, Colette. “Water Drop LA Brings Water to Unhoused Neighbors on Skid Row.” Daily
Trojan, 10 Sept. 2020. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2441442395?accountid=14749&parentSessionId=pcP1FWl5nIb0UAh3FkCq8m6EilyhiEcKKaLdx4j8eoA%3D&pq-origsite=primo.
Meares, Hadley. “The Early History of Los Angeles’s Skid Row.” Curbed Los Angeles, 14 Dec.
2017. https://la.curbed.com/2017/12/14/16756190/skid-row-homeless-history.
Portillo, Lourdes Johanna Avelar, et al. “Los Angeles Homelessness and the Access to Water,
Sanitation, and Hygiene.” International Cartographic Association, vol. 1, Jan. 2019. https://www.abstr-int-cartogr-assoc.net/1/18/2019/.
