City Scurries to Find Place to Put Homeless When Camp Is Closed

Mayor Tom Bradley’s plan to extend the life of Los Angeles’ campground for the homeless through Sept. 25 won City Council approval Friday. But officials acknowledged that little progress has been made in finding alternative shelter for the hundreds of people who will need it after that date.

Directors of the Southern California Rapid Transit District, which owns the property at 4th Street and San Pedro Avenue, will consider the extension at their Wednesday meeting. The campground, which opened in mid-June as an alternative to the shantytowns that dotted Skid Row sidewalks and alleys, was originally scheduled to be closed by Monday.

RTD chief John Dyer said Friday that he will ask board members to grant the extension. RTD officials said the homeless must vacate the camp by the end of September, when crews are to begin preparing the site for a Metro Rail maintenance yard.

Major Obstacle

Finding other shelter for the 600 or more men, women and children who reside at the camp has proved to be a major obstacle. As part of the solution, officials and nonprofit agencies are hoping to lease a large, vacant building capable of providing shelter and social services for up to 350 people nightly.

“It’s more difficult than people realized to find a building. . . . We’ve got to find a building,” said Sue Flores, director of human services for the city’s Community Development Department.

However, Flores acknowledged that “there is no guarantee” that such a facility will be found before Sept. 25.

Officials are more optimistic about other housing alternatives. The Community Redevelopment Agency on Tuesday approved a $1.5-million loan to the city Housing Authority to buy 102 two-bedroom and three-bedroom house trailers from the Utah-based Intermountain Power Agency. The transaction still faces City Council review.

The trailers--used by the power company to house construction workers--are not viewed as a short-term solution to the camp, Flores said, but rather as “transitional” housing for homeless families. Those trailers, expected to arrive within 60 days, would be located on property owned by the Housing Authority and nonprofit agencies.

Talks have begun about the possible purchase of additional trailers from the power company, said Lester Burg, the CRA’s housing program officer. These trailers include modules that form “garden apartments” that may be used as permanent housing for families, as well as long trailers with several single rooms and shared bathrooms. Those trailers could represent housing for “traditional” homeless people, Burg said.

“There are logistical problems to be worked out, like if we bought them, where would we place them?” Burg said. The trailers could also provide an alternative to the urban campground, but will not contribute to an “overall” solution.

The campground, while credited for easing problems in other downtown areas, has been plagued with problems of sanitation, vandalism, theft and continuing quarrels between some homeless people and the Salvation Army officials who run the facility. The homeless have also been blamed for increased crime and blight by businesses, agencies and artists who occupy nearby buildings.

“We know there are other elements in the homeless camp than the merely homeless,” William K. McClelland, president of Grand People Company, a nonprofit agency that serves senior citizens, told the council Friday.

These people, he added, are involved in drugs and criminal behavior, and sometimes prey on other homeless people who are mentally and emotionally unstable.

Daniel Cytron, vice chairman of the Alameda East Neighborhood Assn., urged the council ‘to place responsibility for the homeless evenhandedly” among the areas of the city. Later, he said he had only one reason to believe that the homeless camp will be gone by Sept. 25--”trust.”

Activists for the homeless voiced support for the council’s action. Despite the problems, the camp has been “a step toward the answer” of providing permanent shelter, activist Mike Neely said.

“There’s got to be a resolution to this. The urban campground is not the answer,” said Maj. Al Van Cleef of the Salvation Army, which provides 5,000 meals and 1,500 beds to the needy on daily basis countywide.

Operation of the campground and an earlier emergency shelter at the city’s old print shop on 1st Street has cost the Salvation Army close to $250,000, Van Cleef said.