Skid Row's 'Property Warehouse,' the Only One of Its Kind
Established in 2002 thanks to a donation by warehouse owner Richard Meruelo, Skid Row's Excess Personal Property Warehouse is still the only of its kind in the nation. The Central City East Association created the warehouse out of the need clean up the streets and decrease the amount of homeless encampments by providing Skid Row's homeless with a place to keep their belongings.
Today's LA Times features an article and photos from the warehouse. LAist also had a chance to visit the warehouse during Wednesday's monthly Skid Row Neighborhood Watch walk.
Councilwoman Jan Perry and Central City East's Executive Director Estela Lopez brought us to the warehouse as we observed while the warehouse staff, many who have been trained through the Chrysalis program, brought individuals bins out.
The system works like this: The warehouse holds 500 bins (and due to an overwhelming demand, they are squeezing in more). Bins are available for anyone to use, for as long as needed, provided they renew their bin at least once every seven days. It's "a small service that goes a long way", as LA Times' Scott Gold put it.
Without the warehouse, many of these people had no where to keep their stuff, adding to the difficulty of completing daily tasks when living on the streets. With the number of homeless on the rise, Lopez says that the warehouse has seen many new faces, such as professionals and especially women with children, like Krystle Marage, mentioned in Gold's LA Times article.
While the warehouse initially prohibited people from using it as a place to change clothes, recent economic times have created the need for the installation of dressing rooms and more bins. The warehouse is provided as service by the not-for-profit Central City East Association while the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and the business improvement districts help provide financing to run the operations.
Skid Row Neighborhood Watch walks happen the first Wednesday of every month and offer insight about the key issues facing the area.
Photo by Emily Lerman/LAist