Coffee and safe haven: Inside the Skid Row cafe run by formerly unhoused women
Robert Garrova takes us to a cafe started by the Downtown Women’s Center.
There are very few options to grab a cup of coffee and sit for a bit in downtown L.A.’s Skid Row. That’s in stark contrast to some of the bougie areas of downtown, where you can throw a rock and hit a four-dollar-a-cup coffee place.
But there’s one cafe that’s steadily served the Skid Row community for over a decade.
Walking into Made by Downtown Women’s Center Cafe and Boutique feels like walking into any non-chain coffee shop you might have come across downtown. There are smiling baristas, tables to work at and a glass case filled with pastries from Homeboy Industries.
But this coffee shop is different: it’s staffed and run by women who are transitioning from homelessness
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Women like LaShornda. She’s worked here for about four years after the Downtown Women’s Center provided her with supportive housing. Now she lives independently with her kids. We’re not using LaShornda’s full name because she has concerns about her safety.
“We always get second chances. And it was a struggle,” she said, recalling her journey from being unhoused, to getting full-time work and housing and, recently, a promotion.
Now LaShornda works to train other women at the cafe, providing many with their first job after fighting to survive on the streets for years.
“I love it here… I love to see some of the women that come in here every day and I know [their] drinks,” LaShornda said.
The Downtown Women’s Center serves about 5,000 people annually with things like permanent supportive housing and job training at their cafe. The center started the cafe about 15 years ago.
“It’s not your normal image of providing services for people experiencing homelessness,” Amy Turk, Downtown Women’s Center’s CEO, said during a visit to the cafe. “Twenty-three thousand women are experiencing homelessness on any given night in Los Angeles. And primarily the reasons stem from gender-based violence, domestic violence and incomes that have never been on par with men.”
Aprons hang on the wall at the Made by DWC candle-making studio.
About five years ago — after moving from Texas and getting stranded without work during the height of the pandemic — Alexandria Piñeda found herself unhoused on Skid Row. That was before she got linked up with DWC.
“The Skid Row community was so good to me,” Piñeda said. “You know, they really looked out for me. And it’s nice for them to have something nice. For them to be able to escape the madness on the street.”
The cafe typically trains dozens of workers a year. And while you’re grabbing a cup of coffee, you might notice some handmade candles on the shelves, with scents like Halfmoon BAE and Joshua TEA. Under the brand Made by DWC, Piñeda and her team of trainees make those just a few blocks away, along with bath salts and other scented goods.
Alexandria Piñeda in her office at the Made by DWC studio in Downtown L.A.
“A lot of them are stuck in survival mode because they’re straight off the street when they come to us,” she said. “But they’re with me for four months. So I kind of have the opportunity to train them out of that... It completely changes their life and I get to witness that. All the time.”
She said that’s the best part of the job.
How to visit:
MADE by DWC Cafe
438 S. San Pedro St., Los Angeles
Hours: Mon – Fri, 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The monthly Sip & Shop takes place on the last Friday of each month. This month’s event will be held on Jan. 30 at the resale boutique:
Made by DWC Resale Boutique
325 S. Los Angeles St, Los Angeles
Hours: Mon – Fri, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.