The facility at 640 S. Maple Ave. is open 24 hours a day. It is staffed with medical practitioners, social workers and sober coaches, people who have cleaned up and can offer life advice. Patients, most of them from Skid Row, are given beds, medical treatment when required, food and snacks, and a chance to connect with social services. The average patient will stay in the facility somewhere between a few hours and overnight.
The center works with a number of Skid Row outreach teams that have been helping to bring inebriated individuals to the facility. Murch said that staffers have been spreading the word to officers at the LAPD’s Central Division, which is in Skid Row, on the idea of offering an alternative for people who might be arrested.
Skid Row has an estimated population of at least 5,000 homeless people, of which up to 50% are believed to be dealing with addiction, according to the Los Angeles Mission. Fire Station 9, which is on Skid Row, transports an average of 25 intoxicated people a day to County-USC Medical Center, according to an LAFD official at the December event.
Murch said most of those who have been brought to the sobering center in the first month were treated for alcohol intoxication, though others have come in high on heroin, crack or crystal meth.
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