This American expression came into being in the Great Depression. Residence on Skid Row evokes imagery of someone who was slipping down in society - 'on the skids'. But the term wasn't just figurative, read all about it here . These days the term skid row means the same thing - A squalid district inhabited by the impoverished and destitute. OR the band... *grin*
"We realized that the important thing was not the film itself but that which the film provoked." Fernando Solanas