Giving Shelter : Salvation Army Offers Auditorium to House the Homeless During Southland’s Big Chill

It was an unusual and somewhat confusing week inside Fellowship Hall.

For the first time, the San Fernando Valley Corps of the Salvation Army last week turned its plush auditorium, complete with mauve carpet and handsome light fixtures, into an emergency cold-weather shelter for the homeless.

Rows of cots topped with heavy wool blankets stretched across the auditorium normally used for prayer services. Grungy bags and knapsacks were strewn on the carpet. Disheveled people milled around eating hot stew out of paper bowls.

“This place has never looked so bad and so beautiful at the same time,� said Salvation Army Capt. John Purdell. “It’s been such a long week--so many people with so many needs. We had to learn how to contend with a crowd of strangers in our living room.�

Although the shelter closed Friday after the cold-weather emergency had passed, corps officials promise to open their doors again whenever inclement weather poses the risk of hypothermia to the homeless.

The shelter opened last week almost by accident. And, by the time it closed, more than 200 people had spent at least one night there and 830 meals had been served.

An Alternative Plan

Under the city policy put into action for the first time last week, the homeless were supposed to be housed at city parks or receive free hotel vouchers when the temperature dropped below 40 degrees. But that was before Purdell stepped in with an alternative plan.

In the Valley, city officials opened the Lake View Terrace Recreation Center Late Sunday afternoon because it is within walking distance of the Hansen Dam Park, where many Valley homeless people have camps set up.

A large number of homeless people were eating the Sunday dinner provided each week by the Salvation Army at its Van Nuys headquarters when city officials arrived to pass out motel vouchers to those who wanted them, and to tell them that a warm bed was available at the Lake View Terrace Recreation Center.

But no one showed up at the park center that first night, city officials said. And, although officials distributed 40 vouchers to motels in Sepulveda, some families apparently were fearful about using them. Purdell said several of them complained that they were afraid to stay in the motels because of drug and prostitution problems there.

“I felt strongly enough about their complaints that I could not in in good conscience allow people to leave the Salvation Army and go and stay in a place where they might get hurt,� Purdell said.

Safety Complaints

Susan Flores, director of human services for the city’s Community Development Department, said late last week that her office will review complaints about the safety of the motels. For several months, she said, homeless people have been given emergency shelter vouchers to the motels, and there have been no complaints.

Still, when Purdell offered his Van Nuys facility as an alternative to the vouchers and the city’s Lake View Terrace site, “we graciously accepted the offer,� Flores said.

Temperatures in the Valley dropped to near freezing Tuesday night and 45 people slept at the Salvation Army building. On Wednesday, a fierce winter storm brought snow to the foothills and cold winds gripped the Southland that day and the next.

The stinging chill drew about 40 people to the makeshift shelter Wednesday night. City employees joined Salvation Army volunteers in handling the overnight staffing chores.

On Thursday, the city once again decided to open its own shelter at the Pacoima Recreation Center.

Lake View Terrace, which had been opened as a shelter that first night, was being used for other purposes by then.

Although they said they appreciate the Salvation Army’s effort, city officials said it is easier to run a shelter on city property because staff, phones and supplies are on hand.

But only five people showed up in Pacoima Thursday night. At the Salvation Army shelter, 80 people stayed the night.

“It was important this first time to move quickly to provide shelter for as many people as possible. The Salvation Army allowed us to do that,� Flores said. In the future, she said, the city will open its own shelter in a Valley city park.

For Purdell, the first night running a shelter was the most difficult.

He had to decide how to accommodate the families with children, the winos and the handful of women without homes.

Purdell quickly initiated a no-drinking and no-smoking policy. He put the women and families in separate classrooms for privacy. The men stayed in the auditorium.

By Wednesday morning, many of the families, several with three and four children, needed bathing. Using Salvation Army funds from Christmas kettle donations, Purdell sent about 10 families to a “hotel I can trust.� Larry Moss, whose family stayed in the shelter Tuesday night, said it “saved my family from the street.� The 32-year-old father of two said that he spent his last $30 on a motel the previous night. “We would be sleeping in some alley if we weren’t here,� Moss said.

Treated With Respect

Marvin Randolph, 44, said he has stayed in many shelters “but this is the first one where people treat you with respect. They talk to you about God and how you can help yourself out of your problems.� He said he is going to enter a Salvation Army drug rehabilitation center.

The Christian preaching practiced by the Salvation Army, however, may have kept some homeless people away from the shelter, said Paul L. Gallant, a counselor for Better Valley Services, a nonprofit housing agency.

“A lot of homeless people told me that they didn’t want to go there because they didn’t want to hear sermons and preaching,� Gallant said. “When you are homeless and hurting, you want a cure for the hurt first and talk about God later.�

Purdell said he will continue to open the Salvation Army whenever the weather warrants “even if we don’t receive any help from city employees. We will be willing to write it all off as a gift to the San Fernando Valley.�