New Agency to Take Over Troubled Homeless Center

‘At present, we do not have a government funding source willing to pay the cost to help homeless families.’

Gene Boutilier

United Way spokesman

The San Fernando Valley’s largest shelter for the homeless, which has been plagued by management and financial problems that have recently forced it to turn away the families it was created to serve, will be taken over Nov. 1 by a new nonprofit agency.

The agency, Valley Shelter Inc., will replace Valley Interfaith Council as the group responsible for day-to-day operation of Valley Interfaith Shelter, which opened six months ago in a converted North Hollywood motel and truck stop.

Although the Interfaith Council is “passionately committed” to the 72-room shelter, there has been concern that the Van Nuys-based agency lacks the experience and organizational skill to manage a program of its size and complexity, said Gene Boutilier of United Way, one of the agencies providing funds for the shelter.

“We don’t think that the shelter will survive without improvements in fund raising and management,” Boutilier said.

Shelter workers were informed in a letter Friday that their employment will be terminated Oct. 31. Riess Potterveld, a member of the nonprofit church- and synagogue-related Interfaith Council’s board, said 12 full-time and four part-time employees were told that they may be hired by the new corporation.

Potterveld said it is uncertain whether the Rev. William R. Griffin will remain as the shelter’s manager. In any case, he said, an executive director will be hired to oversee operation of the shelter.

“We’re putting in another layer of management,” said Potterveld, who is pastor of Congregational Church of Northridge.

He said the new group’s board of directors will study the shelter’s operation and financial affairs and will recommend changes.

Although the composition of the board has not been determined, Potterveld said he will be president. Other members will include some of the Interfaith Council’s board members and some of the shelter’s founders, including Nancy Bianconi, executive director of Better Valley Services, the agency that screens shelter residents.

The transfer of responsibility to Valley Shelter has been approved in principle by 13 of the Interfaith Council’s 30 board members and is expected to win approval of the entire board at its next meeting, on Oct. 22, Potterveld said.

The former Fiesta Motel was purchased in March with $2.2 million from the city, state, private foundations and individuals. The Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency and Community Development Department each gave the Interfaith Council $200,000 in no-interest loans with the proviso that they need not be repaid as long as the motel is used for the homeless.

Operating expenses of $65,000 a month have been partly covered by a contract with the county reserving 40 to 50 rooms a night for single people and childless couples who have applied for county General Relief. The county pays $16 a night per person, $10 a night less than the shelter’s estimated housing cost.

Since opening, the shelter has received $20,000 in donations from the public and churches, $14,000 from Magic Years Nursery School and a $105,000 federal grant for emergency housing for families that is expected to be renewed by Congress, although funds will probably not be available until early next year.

The shelter also has received $10,000 each from USA for Africa, the Valley Mayors’ Fund for the Homeless and Arco; a $195,000 grant from the state Department of Housing and Community Development; $45,000 in federal grants for property improvements and kitchen equipment, and $136,000 from United Way for staff additions.

Still, shelter administrators said they are facing a $30,000 shortfall by the end of the month.

In recent weeks, increasing financial problems have forced the shelter to give more of its rooms to singles and childless couples, whose shelter can be partially reimbursed by the county. In contrast to singles and childless couples, homeless families have far fewer sources of emergency housing funds available.

The Interfaith Council recently hired a fund-raising firm at a cost of $3,000 a month. The first major fund-raiser--an appeal to Valley churches--is scheduled for Nov. 23.

The reorganization has been tentatively approved by the CRA, United Way and other agencies that have provided financial support for the shelter.

Warning From CRA

The CRA had given the shelter until Oct. 23 to come up with an acceptable management plan, or it would have begun foreclosure on its loan.

“We’ve put them on alert,” John Maguire, CRA deputy administrator for housing, said Friday. “We want a management agent--a firm or individual--who’s got experience in running or operating rental housing especially for that population group, dealing with such basic things as how to operate the facility, rules for evictions, security deposits . . . those types of issues.”

Maguire said one of the CRA’s major concerns is that the National Housing Ministry, the management agency approved by the CRA to run the shelter, was terminated by the Interfaith Council shortly after the shelter opened in April. The CRA was not informed until July, he said.

Potterveld said the management agency was dropped because it duplicated on-premise management hired by the council and because there was a difference of opinion about the shelter’s priorities.

The Interfaith Council was also faced with unexpected expenses, such as repairing damage caused by residents and expensive plumbing and electrical work for the aging buildings. It was also troubled by residents’ fighting, vandalism and liquor and drug use. The shelter has provided housing to more than 1,000 people.

The shelter was originally intended to house only families, for whom there are far fewer beds than for singles or childless couples, Bianconi of Better Valley Services said. But there is little government money for families’ emergency housing, Boutilier said.

Families may apply for Aid to Families of Dependent Children, which pays about $480 a month for a family of four. But until their grants are processed, they have no immediate access to assistance beyond a one-time, $100 emergency grant, according to those who deal with homeless families.

“At present, we do not have a government funding source willing to pay the cost to help homeless families,” Boutilier said.

Fewer Families Sheltered

The shelter, which formerly reserved about a third of its rooms for families, now has only six families. Four of the families are expected to move out by the end of this week. Alternate accommodations are being sought for the other families, shelter manager Griffin said. He said that, as soon as funds permit, the shelter will accept families again.

Griffin said a number of the families have left the shelter with the assistance of no-interest loans from United Way. The loans cover their first and last months’ rent, United Way officials said. However, United Way is studying the no-interest loan program to see if it will continue.

Other families have left the state or were forced to leave the shelter because they had not made genuine efforts to find work and housing, Griffin said.

The shelter will continue to provide current residents with psychological counseling, food, employment and housing assistance, clothing, furniture and other services, Griffin said.