Shelter Opens : Homeless Come in From the Cold

In Robert Altamirano’s words, “rock bottom” arrived about two weeks ago. He and his wife and their infant son were asked to leave a friend’s Sylmar home, where they had been staying since December after Altamirano lost his job as a janitor.

The family hit the streets. They lived out of a car, sometimes ate out of garbage cans and barely got by on a small welfare check and change from collecting aluminum cans, he said.

On Tuesday, however, Altamirano, 39, his wife Lorraine, 26, and 7-month-old Robert Jr. had a roof over their heads, clean sheets to sleep on, two free meals a day and a bathroom of their own.

The Altamiranos were among the first people to move into a former North Hollywood motel that has been converted into a temporary home. For the family, Tuesday’s grand opening of the Valley Interfaith Shelter came just in time.

“We had been getting desperate, just didn’t know if we were going to make it,” Altamirano said. “We went to Easter services yesterday, and tried to stay the night at a church, but they wouldn’t let us. . . . I just thank God this came along.”

About 100 other people checked in Tuesday at what had been the 77-unit Fiesta Motel before it received a $142,000 face lift during the last several weeks.

Applicants Screened

They were referred to the shelter by Better Valley Services of Van Nuys, a city-funded organization that screened applicants and gave them rent vouchers good for up to 30 days. The shelter on its first day took in about 12 families and 70 single people, some of whom were asked to share rooms.

The residents were picked largely on a first-come, first-served basis, although the screening was aimed at selecting the recently unemployed and homeless rather than transients who have been without shelter for a long time, Nancy Biancon, shelter director, said.

Officials did not accept mentally disturbed applicants, she said, explaining, “We’re trying to make it a community as much as possible.”

The shelter’s opening was the culmination of nearly a year’s work by the Interfaith Council, which bought the motel for $2.2 million and used grants and donations to clean it up. The council has enough money to operate the shelter “for a few months” but eventually will need about $25,000 each month to remain open, said Rabbi Steven M. Reuben of Temple Judea in Tarzana, chairman of the Interfaith Council’s advisory committee for the shelter.

More work needs to be done, such as completing renovations on an adjoining building, to serve as a cafeteria; designing a room for a day care center and building a children’s playground. But, for the most part, “We’re ready to fly,” Reuben said.

The shelter is the only one in Los Angeles that tries to find employment for its residents and provides legal and medical assistance.

Residents and workers in the area, who have long complained that the shelter would turn the 7800 block of Lankershim Boulevard into a slum, appear to be accepting it, at least for the time being.

“I think we’re all adopting a wait-and-see attitude,” said Alberto Garay, who manages the nearby Valley Inn Motel.

Interfaith officials and the shelter’s first residents predicted that living conditions in and around the shelter would be better than during its days as a motel.

Jimmy Robbins, 31, an unemployed mechanic who was given a voucher to live at the shelter for three weeks, said he used to pay $180 a week to stay at the motel and had to put up with “bugs that were bigger than you and me.”

“They’ve really got this place looking nice,” Robbins said. With his girlfriend and her 6-year-old daughter, he had checked into a room with two beds.

Robbins said he has been homeless for several months and has been “able to stay alive” by selling his personal possessions.

“If we didn’t get this place, we probably would have started selling our clothes,” he said. “I’ll start looking for work again tomorrow. Right now, we’re just trying to catch our breath.”