Calling Skid Row home: making L.A. district a viable community

In Los Angeles’ Skid Row district, homeless camps, shelters and drug treatment centers share the streets with upscale lofts and restaurants. This dynamic fascinates Michael Powe, UC Irvine planning, policy & design doctoral candidate, who heads a project to recommend development and policies to city officials and businesses that would foster economic diversity on Skid Row. This spring he won a $10,000 Public Impact Fellowship from UCI’s Graduate Division that supports students whose research could have significant local, national or global benefit. Powe wants to shape a future in which longtime Skid Row residents and loft dwellers work together for the common good.