Many Respond With Help for Homeless in Cold Weather

As the cold snap that has killed two homeless people went into its fourth day Sunday in Southern California, an outpouring of private support helped those living on the streets to cope with frigid night temperatures.

Five churches opened their doors, offering food and shelter. Mayor Tom Bradley’s appeal to the public to donate blankets was answered with a deluge of more than 11,000. And civic activists made plans to keep alive the momentum to help the homeless after the cold weather crisis passes.

The weather was milder Sunday, but despite the warming trend Southern California Gas Co. estimated Sunday that its 4.1 million customers would use 4.1 billion cubic feet of gas, setting a record for Sunday gas use.

A spokesman for the National Weather Service predicted Sunday night lows at the Civic Center between the upper 30s and the low 40s, well below the average low of 47.7 degrees for January. Slightly warmer weather was predicted for Monday with highs in the mid-to-upper 60s and lows in the 40s.

No new deaths attributed to the cold weather were reported Sunday.

The church effort to provide shelter for the homeless began Friday afternoon.

Pastor Frank Madison Reid III said he wanted to let the homeless sleep at the Ward African Methodist Episcopal Church but worried about insurance problems--the same concern that prompted the City Council to reject a proposal to use city buildings to shelter the homeless.

Reid called his father, who is bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church for Alabama. “I’ve got just one question for you,” the elder Reid said to his son. “What would Jesus do?”

Hours later, 130 warmed and fed homeless were sleeping on the floor of the church gym.

By Sunday, four other churches, responding to pleas from the staff of Councilman Gilbert Lindsay and the Brotherhood Crusade, agreed to take in the homeless and still others offered food and money. Reid, who said his church will be open as long as the weather is cold, collected $3,000 during Sunday services for the homeless.

Blankets--more than 11,000 in the last four days--flooded into the Salvation Army’s Harbor Light Mission in the downtown area, Oscar Mendoza, Harbor Light director of operations, said.

“We got electric blankets, new blankets, used blankets, ponchos, sleeping bags, wool blankets, floral patterns, solid stripe, bed spreads,” Mendoza said. “We got our garage just about full--6 feet high.”

Almost as quickly as they came in, the blankets were going out to the homeless.

The Salvation Army is giving them to people eating the evening meal of beans and bread and to people lining up in front of its two soup wagons. The Guardian Angels are on the streets handing out more between midnight and 5 a.m. Robert Gay of Lindsay’s office took 100 blankets to distribute Friday, 400 Saturday and 1,000 Sunday. The Church of the Nazarene sent a caravan of eight cars and vans for blankets.

Meanwhile, police identified one victim of the cold as Lalerie Moreno, 54.

She was pronounced dead at French Hospital Friday night after police found her on the sidewalk outside a Chinatown restaurant. The coroner’s office has tentatively concluded that hypothermia triggered a fatal heart attack.

Moreno’s only protection against the cold was a brown sweater, a green dress and a pair of brown shoes. Police found a pile of chicken bones next to her.

About an hour before she was pronounced dead, a couple gave her a dollar and she tried to thank them by reciting a story, said Dave Kwan, the manager of the Golden City Restaurant, who was walking past. Storekeepers said the woman was a fixture on Chinatown’s streets.

The other casualty of the bitter weather remains unidentified. The man, who witnesses said was drunk, died under a tree in the Hansen Dam Park in Pacoima. He was found Friday morning.

Times staff writer Lynn O’Shaughnessy contributed to this story.