Walking into the raw reality of LA’s Skid Row

By Lia Mandelbaum
Published on August 11, 2011

Rebuilding lives, one broken tile at a time

By Jane Ulman
Published on November 19, 2008

It was an elegant opening for a gallery exhibition. It was difficult to discern, on the surface, that the artists represented some of Los Angeles' most impoverished citizens, residents of Skid Row and South Los Angeles, who are actually using the broken bits of tile, stone and other rejected and recycled materials to rebuild their own lives.

Sukkot on the streets—finding community amid temporary shelter

By Anat Rubin
Published on October 10, 2008

Every night on Skid Row, 5,000 people pile onto shelter cots or erect their flimsy huts in the concrete desert of the city. Another 9,000 go to bed in the area's residency hotels, hoping to still have a roof over their heads the next day. In the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, year-round they share their sukkot with each other and remind us that we have failed to do the same for them.