For fifteen years, Gary Lett has been doing more than cleaning the streets
of Skid Row - he has been a watchful eye and a sympathetic ear for members
of LA's largest homeless community. (Creative Commons licensed)

Over the course of the last nine months, I have taken dozens of trips to the corner of Gladys Avenue and 6th Street, located in the heart of Los Angeles' Skid Row. I've spent my time as a filmmaker, attempting to capture one neighborhood in Skid Row that could speak to the problems and dynamics in the area. The man who has guided me through this entire process is Gary Lett, who is employed by SRO Housing to clean and watch over Gladys Park. As the man who oversees the hub of this community, he knows everyone in the neighborhood - activists, workers, policemen, or homeless. Gladys Park indirectly connects him to everyone who has a stake in this community. Gary and some of these people tell their story.

At first glance, finding any bit of inspiration from Gladys Park seems impossible. Beyond the imposing, green steel bars that seem to quarantine everything within this small corner of Skid Row from the outside world, lies an intimidating scene of despair. The park is largely concrete instead of grass, but one wouldn't know it with all the people sprawled across the ground. Hundreds of people sit, wearing nothing but rags, watching the sun move across the sky. The one patch of grass in the park is avoided like a pool of hot lava for fear of sitting on used needles. Some people stand, clustered in small groups surrounding concrete dominos and chess tables. An even more select few have the energy to utilize the basketball court - a newly added luxury to the park. 

Moving through the park, one needs to step over or zigzag through people passed out on the ground. One man is off to the side, lathering himself with cooking oil for reasons unknown. Another man just finished a set of chin-ups on the pull-up bar - probably his hundredth set of the day, considering he does sets consecutively, all day, every day. A woman sits by herself, puling away at 40 ounces of malt liquor from a brown paper bag. Turning around, one can see rows of shopping carts and people sitting on the street from beyond the green bars.

If one turned back to catch a closer look, one would be surprised. Sifting through the initial images, there are people smiling. People are saying hello to each other, laughing at the dominoes table, passing each other food, lending each other blankets. Gladys Park could easily be mistaken as a prison from the inside; at a closer glance, one sees that there is a community that exists at this park, and that this place is actually a safe haven for Skid Row.

"This is a community. No matter what no one says, this is a community. There are women and children; there are guys who have been down here 30, 40 years. There are people who live in these hotels. People know each other, they greet each other, they know that my mother is well or that my brother has a drug problem. It is a community. Actually this is more of a community down here than some neighborhoods," said Gary Lett.

If anyone could speak about the community surrounding Gladys Park, it's Gary Lett. Gary spends his days in a 6-foot by 6-foot wooden equipment shack in the back of Gladys Park. A small wood chair turned backwards barely holds up his football player sized body as he focuses on his PSP; he plays video games on breaks before getting up to return his job of raking up leaves and sweeping sidewalks. His official job title may be janitor, but he is more like the old sage of Skid Row.

Gary knows everyone - and I mean everyone - in the community surrounding Gladys Park. Every time I come and visit he has more stories to tell me. Stories about people he has known, some who have gotten their lives together and made it out of Skid Row, some who have died before being able to make it out. Stories about ex-professional football players fallen from grace and now stuck on the street, or about a prostitute so infuriated about contracting HIV that she intentionally targets married men and forces them to not use a condom in order to spread the disease.

He has told me many stories, which have consumed my life for the last nine months; they have consumed his life for the last 15 years. Despicable or inspirational, these are the stories that no one hears about life on Skid Row.

"I got personally involved with this job when I was going to school to become a doctor and they cut my grant. I moved into the Russ Hotel on 5th and San Julian and this was supposed to be a summer job and I don't know what happened. It was like, zoom, and everything went by me."

"Basically when we open the gates we have anywhere between 100 and 150 people in this small area of park. This park is surrounded by children, women, and men, and mentally deranged people who just want to come in and have a safe place to sit down and sleep. They will come in here and they will actually go to sleep for the full 8 hours that we're here. And then when we leave they have to stay up the whole night because it's so dangerous down here. But it's getting better, but it's still dangerous."

"God, there's no one madness down here. There's accumulation. It's like if you get a garbage can and you throw all this garbage in there. That's downtown Skid Row. There are women who are prostituting; there are women who are drug addicts, who have problems. There are people who are HIV positive and yet they are prostituting. There are people who are selling drugs to children, there are women who are selling drugs and pregnant. There are guys who are molesting children. There are guys who are molesting each other."

"When I first came down here I thought I could save everybody. I'm like if you give them some money, you tell them what to do, they'll be all right. They pretty much chewed me up alive down here...there's been some stuff that has happened to me. On the side of my face, I have like a little cut. I got that from trying to stop some madness, trying to help someone."

"This guy was trying to kill this girl for some drugs, and I jumped in the way because he was going to stab her, and he swung the knife and I unfortunately was in the way. It was like seven stitches, and I thought about getting it fixed, but I was like no, I mean it makes my face - I'm not the handsomest guy in the world, but now I have a story..."

"... God, there are so many stories down here. It's just that nobody takes the time to listen to any of them."

"I like being homeless."

"Gary, he's like a dad, a big brother to me. Makes sure I'm okay. Makes sure I have what I need. Like if I need a blanket, he'll make sure I got one. If I want some candy or soda, he gets me some sometimes. You know, just as me if I'm feeling okay," said Dee Ann Woulf.

Dee Ann Woulf cracks a toothless smile after talking about her relationship with Gary. She wears a ratty tank top, exposing her unshaved armpits. Her hair sticks out from an oversized baseball cap. She has been on Skid Row for 25 years, spending her days walking between Gladys Park and a mission on San Pedro a few blocks away for food. A self-proclaimed loner, she admits Gary is the only friend she has on Skid Row.

"I usually don't talk to people that much because I'm a loner. I usually don't like to be around people that much. I don't get involved in conversation. With Gary yeah, but no one else really."

"I like doing drugs. I like smoking rocks. I don't use needles. I think that would hurt me I don't want nothing hurting me. They took my kids away because I was doing drugs so much."

"(How easy is it for you to get the drugs that you want on Skid Row?) If you got money. It's not that easy, used to be real easy."

"(How do you get the money?) Sell my body, suck dick, do what I gotta do. I'm used to doing it. It comes natural now."

"I used to be awake day and night doing drugs, but now I backed off. I eat now and I sleep a lot. I don't wanna quit. I like doing them too much. I just take a break. It's good for you because you get yourself together more. Otherwise you stay lost; you see the ones walking around talking to themselves, mumbling, never taking showers, they've lost it. When I see myself getting to that point, I take a break. Then I go back to it."

When Gary first talked about Dee Ann with me, he told me another story about her. She had recently been picked up by a taxi driver on Skid Row who tried to kill her. The man had killed homeless women before, however Dee Ann was able to get away by kicking his face while he tried to rape her. She will have to testify against him when his case goes to trial.

"I was pretty lucky. I got attacked by this guy. He's a killer. Kills women, I got lucky I got out of there. He picked me up for a date. He told me he had dope so I went with him. Then he tried to kill me and I got away from him...they put out pictures of him, the guy kills women. Same guy. I gotta go to court against this guy, they caught him."

"I feel safe anyway, I don't let it bother me. Could have happened a long time ago with anybody, but I've been lucky and haven't come across it. Could have, doing what I do."

"What you think is what you bring onto yourself. I've noticed that, if I think it's going to go shitty, it goes shitty, if I think it'll go happy, it goes happy. I like being homeless. Homeless is a good thing if you like it, I like it. I'm the type that really likes being homeless...I would not want to live inside. I can't stand it. I like living outside, in the fresh air, doing what I want."

"I have seen some miracles here."

Gary is pushing his trash can around now, raking up garbage and leaves sprinkled throughout the sea of people on the ground. It would probably be easier to rake up people; the homeless outnumber leaves in this park.

As he wiggles through the crowd, he says hello to everyone who sees him. He shakes hands with Jerry, one of Gary's "walking miracles." Jerry is missing half of his face, hidden mostly under a strip of fabric, after he absorbed four shotgun shells during a drive-by. Eventually, Gary moves on to the next person; everyone has a story.

"There are so many people that are down here that are doctors, lawyers, teachers. We have nuclear physicists down here...you name it, we have it down here. What happens is that sometimes an event happens in your life and you might end up down here. [People] come downtown and they can blend in. And a lot of people come down here and unfortunately they did stuff with drugs, alcoholism, and they get stuck. Years and years go by, and to you it seems like a day, maybe two days. And before you know it, ten years went by it just seems like yesterday you were getting off the Greyhound bus to come down here. Unfortunately, it's growing. With the economy being the way it is this is going to get a lot worse."

"I know I'm saying a lot of bad stuff, but it's not all bad. That's only the negative tip. There are so many people have come downtown and they have did great. I have learned some of the worst things you can learn and I saw some miracles. Some miracles that people will never see. Actually saw miracles...people who were mentally challenged have turned into lawyers. I have saw people who were on drugs, who were basically dying are now counselors, helping people. So I have seen some miracles here."

Another one of those miracles is Will Brown, known by everyone as "Chill Will". Gary explained to me when I first met him that Chill used to be addicted to drugs. He got caught sleeping with his drug dealer's girlfriend, and the drug dealer tried to kill him by beating him up and attempting to drown him in a toilet. Chill Will was dead for a few minutes, but was eventually revived by paramedics. Chill Will walks with a severe limp now, and talks with a heavy speech impediment. Sporting an unshaven goatee and dreadlocked hair, Chill Will's bright eyes and smile are infectious.

"I find it convenient to be downtown," said Will. "Everybody gotta be somewhere, and this seemed cool at the time. Back then, we was young and broke. I was with people who was robbing so I participated in their activity. I would smoke, I used to drink, I used to shoot drugs. I was young and didn't know no better."

"Every dope fiend get tired of being a dope fiend. Get tired of using. Get tired of watching his back 24/7. Get tired of the same old same month. It all adds up. Sometimes, every so often, every one has a moment of clarity. I like being sober. I've been sober four years, I love it, and I ain't planning on going back."

"I go all over downtown. I've been here a long time; I know a lot of people. I enjoy people. I have a lot of friends that play chess. I love playing chess. I play chess in [Gladys] park, across the street, and next door. Everybody here wants to be like Bobby Fisher. I'm not that good yet, but I'm trying."

"Problem is I'm still here. You are either part of the problem or part of the solution. I'm part of the problem. If I want to be a part of the solution, I need to get away from here and help somebody else."

"They're in a Catch-22."

Every time I come to Gladys Park, I can count on two things: finding Gary at his equipment shack and seeing at least one police car circling the block.

"There is a great amount of police officers that are down here now," said Gary. "From what I observe, the only reason that there is an increase in the police department and the officers down here is because downtown is over-going some sort of change. We have lofts and condominiums and they have like art museums downtown. The thing is that these people that are moving downtown do not wish to see any homeless people. So these officers are harassing and victimizing a lot of the homeless people. I've seen them take their carts and just throw them into the street and kick it. And this sometimes is everything that these girls and these guys own inside of a shopping cart."

"The police are caught in a no-win situation. They're in a catch-22. They're damned if they do something to the homeless, they're damned if they don't. I can see both scenarios. I can see that the presence has cleaned up some really violent areas."

Since the launching of the Safer Cities Initiative in 2006, the police have become a fixture in the Skid Row community; there may be no more prominent fixture for the community surrounding Gladys Park than Senior Lead Officer Steven Nichols. Nichols has been patrolling Skid Row for seven years, and is now being transferred to the Safer Cities Special Task Force to train new officers on how to be respectful yet effective officers in Skid Row.

The Safer Cities Initiative is a point of controversy for not only those in the Gladys community, but all of Skid Row. Brought to Los Angeles from New York by Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton, the philosophy of SCI is simple: cite and arrest people in troublesome areas for smaller crimes, like loitering and jaywalking, in order to prevent larger crimes from happening. The policy is often referred to as "broken windows" policing. The Los Angeles Police Department dispatched 50 new police officers to the small pocket of Los Angeles known as Skid Row.

The effectiveness of SCI varies, depending on whom you ask. Proponents point to 18,000 arrests from 2006 to 2008, thus clearing the streets of criminals. Although the amount of arrests are daunting, less than 5 percent of those arrests have been for serious crimes such as murder, rape, or armed robbery. Criminals are getting pulled off the street early and often, preventing major crimes that once plagued the area from happening.

Others call the policy harassment. With the overabundance of officers now in the area, homeless people are constantly reminded that they cannot sit on the sidewalk and they need to keep moving. Organizations such as the Los Angeles Community Action Network protest with photographs and videos of police beating up homeless people. Finally, many complain that the police hunt for people on parole, in order to site them for a small crime that nonetheless violates their parole and puts them back in jail. No only does this send a homeless person back to jail, but parole violations make homeless people ineligible for low-income housing and other aid once they get back out.

"Sixth and Gladys is pretty much the heart of Skid Row, in my humble opinion, only because everything that is typical, if not stereotypical, of Skid Row happens right here," said Nichols.

"This where you will find the overdoses, this is where you will find the drug dealing, this is where you will find under the influence. Just a block from here on a Friday very similar to this about I don't know, seven or eight months ago, a baby was born. I mean you have life and death out here and it's not all outside the realm of possibility."

"Skid Row is an emerging neighborhood, and emerging force, if you will. Interestingly enough, even though people use drugs, deal drugs, have drug overdoses, if the camera was able to look behind through the gate, there was at least a few minutes ago, two gentleman playing chess...you have people down here almost every block some time during the day or night paying chess. There's talk of having an inner city chess tournament...to me that is just incredible. This area is also hosting the three-on-three Skid Row basketball league. This is where the heart of the community is, in and around this park."

"I know that the greater majority, if not the vast majority of people here welcome my presence. They need me here. They want me here, not just the police but somebody that they know by name, somebody the can recognize by appearance, somebody who they can stop whether it's on foot or in a vehicle as I walk or drive by to voice their concerns, share their issues, and tell me what's going on."

"I chose voluntarily to come here, because I knew here were differences to made here, work to be done, crime could be brought down, people could be helped and a difference could be made."

"To be a senior lead officer, especially in Skid Row, you have to have a caring and compassion of concern. This is more than just putting in your time. This is involving yourself, this is immersing yourself, in the community and becoming a part of it and helping the people in the community, the ones that you are there to help know that you want to be there, that their concerns and issues are your concerns and issues, and that you will do everything in your power to make their lives and their world a better place."

"As far as everybody sharing my thoughts on the line - I'd say a majority do, there are always some who don't. If the officers are doing their part, and doing their jobs so to speak and eliminating crime, then certainly I think by virtue of the fact that they're doing that, that makes a difference."

"I think it's more than just a criminal interest down here; it has to do with the well-being of the person as a whole. If all we are doing is putting people in jail or trying to rack up statistics or you know address criminal issues then that's only part of it. And ultimately, that's not everything we need to do as police officers."

"I think it was necessary. Given my experience in this area, prior to Safer City Initiative being deployed in this area...the accomplishments pretty much speak for themselves. I know a lot of activists viewed Safer Cities Initiative as an occupying army that was coming in to take over Skid Row and impose maybe just a little bit of martial law. In reality there were inroads that had to be made and the attention of some folks had to be got. Looking back, crime has been reduced. The homeless have been helped and the accomplishments that have been made have been in my opinion for the betterment of the community, not to their detriment."

"The theme of this community is recovery."

One of the activists that Nichols speaks of is Charles Porter. Porter is a prevention coordinator for United Coalition East Prevention Protect - a drug prevention organization based right next door to Gladys Park. The coalition's main focus is working with community members to find ways to make the neighborhood a more drug free environment. Charles recently led a march through Skid Row in commemoration of Martin Luther King Day - completely dressed in full African garb. The coalition hosts a variety community programs, including chess tournaments, yoga classes, and the three on three Skid Row basketball league.

"What brings people here is a complex question. But I will say that the main factor is poverty because poverty is a lack of resources, not just a lack of money. And so that's why many people end up here because of choice they choose to come here because there are resources."

"You have some people who live on the street. They sleep on the sidewalk. You have people in the mission, you have people that stay in hotels. And then there are few people who come down here from other neighborhoods."

"What my co-worker always mentions is that this is the world's largest recovery community. There are thousands of people in this neighborhood that are in some type of recovery, whether it's substance abuse, domestic violence, you know, dealing with their mental health issues. But the theme of this community is really around recovery."

"That's something that's often overlooked in regards to the criminal activity. There's kind of been this tug-of-war between what the community wants and what the police have implemented."

"Safer City Initiative has had a great impact on the community in the sense that, first of all, there is the question of, 'Why now?' There has [always] been a strong demand from the people who live in the neighborhood for a safer neighborhood, for a neighborhood where people didn't need to worry about open drug dealing and rampant drug activity. A lot of people are in recovery; not until people started moving downtown and all the redevelopment downtown and all the lofts were built, did the effort start to try and rebuild the community."

 "Our block, Sixth and Gladys, has become worse since SCI, because a lot of the drug activities in other parts of the neighborhood have been pushed here. So criticism of the community is most of these arrests have been homeless people. Some of the real serious drug dealers, they never get arrested."

"The service providers said from the beginning the answer to this problem is not arresting people. And the police, as they went along, started to realize maybe we can create some sort of diversion program and they have started to incorporate that into Safer City Initiative."

"In my mind, I think it addresses the reality that people being arrested and cited, that law enforcement cannot assist them. This is a way for law enforcement to say you need substance abuse counseling, you need mental health services, you need housing, something the service providers were saying from the beginning. But these programs, they are not extensive programs.

"Community members want to live in a safer neighborhood. Even if people are poor, they deserve a safe place to live. It's interesting because most people when they see Skid Row, when they come through the neighborhood...it's intimidating to see a bunch of people you don't know standing outside, you know, during the day. People are afraid of the homeless. But when you spend time here you see they're people, they're human beings. Every face out here is a person - somebody's child, somebody's husband, somebody's wife, mother, daughter, son."

"What I find fascinating is that this is really more of a neighborhood than most parts of LA. You know everybody knows each other. It's funny because if you leave your car unlocked, people will say 'hey' you know 'you left your car unlocked'. If you drop something, you know 'you dropped something'. People really look out for each other and people know each other. And people speak. And that's the other thing I find really unique about this neighborhood. There is a strong sense of community."

"Happy is such a strong word."

Gary resumes his post in the back of the park. Now that the park is clean, his job is to observe, to make sure nothing disrupts the safe environment he has helped create at Gladys Park. He's watched over his little community for 15 years, and is now watching it change as the politics of downtown change during the Safer Cities Initiative era.

"Am I happy to be a part of this community? Happy is such a strong word. I feel useful. Sometimes I hate the sight of this place, and sometimes when I'm away from it, I feel like I am away from home. It's like swallowing medicine, you know it's good for you but you hate the taste. I feel useful in this park because we have helped so many people."

"If I had to do it all over again, I probably would because I have helped and saw a lot of things in life. Believe it or not you have to look at what you do, the overall picture of the whole thing. I coulda been rich and a doctor with a bunch of kids and an ulcer. Or I coulda dropped dead because I was driving my Lamborghini to my office. This is where I am supposed to be. Everything in life, wherever you are, that's where you should be at that point."

"This is a neighborhood. And it's a great neighborhood. And what I mean by it being a great neighborhood is that some of these people down here truly love each other. These people are truly concerned about if they got this person or if this person got their GR check cut off. And they will give them money to pay their rent or they will get to their house and they will fix them a meal. They'll do what they can. It's not all bad."