The Magic Hour
The Magic Hour is in Hollywood. Actually it’s everywhere. But Hollywood does something very specific with it. Hollywood knows what to do.
The Magic Hour is the time around sunset. It’s an hour of perfect lighting. Nothing man-made, no equipment needed. No need to worry about glare ruining your shot. The light is perfect. Everything is clear. But it’s only an hour so you have to maximize it. Use every second.
The Magic Hour has begun in Skid Row.
In April 2015, City Hall released a report “Homelessness and the City of Los Angeles” showing Los Angeles had no strategy to address homelessness. A couple weeks later LAHSA released the numbers from their Homeless Count. The numbers showed a 33% increase in homelessness with the media zeroing in on the 85% increase in tent encampments and folks living in their vehicles.
April 2015 grabbed the attention of City Hall, the media, and the public. That’s very good. But it meant going from one extreme of neglect to another extreme where every time you turned around a new strategic plan was popping up.
Recently the State released 85 million dollars to Los Angeles in emergency funds to address homelessness with 20 million of it dedicated to Skid Row. In the old way of doing things, 5 million would go to a City Department, 5 million to a massive nonprofit, another 5 million to another City Department, and the final 5 million to another massive nonprofit. 20 million spent.
But in March 2017, everything changed. Alisa Orduna, Homelessness Policy Director for Mayor Garcetti, jumped into the deep end of the pool and refused to get out. March 2017 she sent an email to a bunch of grassroots folks saying let’s come together and plan. That level of connection between City Hall and Skid Row at the street level never happened before.
From that email came a 24/7 hygiene center, the Skid Row Community Refresh Spot. The Refresh Spot is a big success, but the process to create it, the Skid Row Community Improvement Coalition, is also a big success.
And so innovation has come to Skid Row.
2 million of this 20 million is heading towards economic infrastructure at the street level in the form of a resident-based street cleaning program. City Hall engaged Hunters Point Family, a Bay Area nonprofit with a reputation for the street community creating their own Best Practices along with government partnership and a track record of handling millions of dollars. Hunters Point Family came to Skid Row, met with the Skid Row Community Improvement Coalition, and now Hunters Point Family and Skid Row are working with 2 million to properly resource the street cleaning work already done for many years by Skid Row residents.
The Magic Hour has begun.