City to Build Shelter on Downtown Land for Homeless Adults

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, under growing pressure to do something for homeless people living on downtown streets, has given his approval to the city’s first temporary Skid Row shelter, a project to be hastily erected starting next weekend on vacant city land.

Under a plan introduced Wednesday at an emergency meeting of city officials and advocates for the homeless, held at the headquarters of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, the shelter would provide 200 to 300 beds for men and women in large dormitory rooms. Children would not be accommodated.

James Wood, chairman of the agency, told those at the meeting that he had the mayor’s mandate to launch the project. Wood, an official of the County Federation of Labor, said the building trades have committed materials and volunteer labor for construction, which could be completed by the middle of next week.

In a statement, Bradley said he asked labor officials this week to help build temporary housing for the homeless based on “an urgent need for immediate additional housing for the homeless in Los Angeles.” He lauded labor for its “quick response.”

The mayor’s news secretary, Ali Webb, added: “This is a stopgap measure to deal with the problem while trying to work out a longer term solution.”

The new plan, a major shift in official city sentiment toward providing shelter for the growing number of homeless, was hatched after a tent encampment of homeless people was removed from a park across from City Hall on Jan. 2.

The tent city, as it was called, was organized by supporters of the homeless to protest official inaction. It stood, filled with more than 300 street people almost every night, at the heart of downtown through the holiday season and attracted much media and political attention. It was closed after permits for the camp expired.

“I think the mayor was real concerned about what happened to those people when the tents came down,” said Martha Brown Hicks, president of the Skid Row Development Corp., a private development arm of the city charged with improving Skid Row.

Hicks said her agency, which receives redevelopment agency funds for its operation, will manage the shelter, which is scheduled to operate until June 10.

Hicks said it could cost $250,000 to run the shelter for six months. Funding details are not complete; city officials hope to persuade the county to pick up part of the cost. The redevelopment agency agreed to pay for liability insurance.

For the last week, Skid Row activists have said that city officials and the mayor’s office were reacting to the political heat generated by the tent camp. There was a flurry of meetings resulting in the consensus that something should be done.

“The tent city was obviously the real catalyst for this, but it’s an important step on the part of the city,” said Nancy Mintie, director of the Inner City Law Center.

The mayor, who has begun campaigning for reelection, set the plan in motion Tuesday at a conference with two close advisers--Wood and William Robertson, executive secretary of the County Federation of Labor--and city Planning Commissioner William Luddy.

The shelter is scheduled to go up on vacant redevelopment agency land at 310 E. 5th St., near the heart of Skid Row. The land had been set aside for use as a second city park for the Skid Row area.