Because of Opioid Crisis, Cities Risk Becoming Blocks of 'Skid Rows'

Lots of big American cities have a “skid row,” an impoverished part of town where the homeless and drug addicted often gather. San Francisco’s Tenderloin and the original Skid Row in Los Angeles are two of the best-known examples, but Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood is just as bad -- and it’s getting worse.

Kensington, which is just north along the El train from the gentrified Fishtown neighborhood, has long been a rough part of town. It began, writes Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Alfred Lubrano, as an industrial neighborhood full of factories making Stetson hats and Disston saws. Since the 1960s, when the factories shut down and the jobs left, the area has become known as a place to score heroin.

Things have gotten worse there as the opioid epidemic has morphed into a broader crisis. In the past year, Kensington’s homeless population, which has been linked to the epidemic, has more than doubled, from 271 to 700 people. In 2017, the area saw a 23 percent spike in homicides -- a trend that appeared to continue last year.

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