L.A. Opens City Hall as Shelter for Homeless : Council’s Temporary Action Spurred by Deaths of Four Street People During Recent Cold Snap

Spurred by the deaths last week of four street people from exposure to near-freezing temperatures, the Los Angeles City Council opened City Hall on Tuesday night to temporarily house the homeless.

The decision was made on a 10-0 vote by the council earlier Tuesday--a few days after Mayor Tom Bradley refused to open public buildings as temporary shelters, citing the city’s potential legal liability in case of injury.

Since Bradley’ decision, however, the coroner’s office has confirmed four deaths due to hypothermia.

Bradley in Africa

The mayor was in Africa on a trade mission Tuesday and was unavailable for comment, but Bradley’s press secretary, Ali Webb, said that she had apprised the mayor by phone of the council’s action and he concurred.

Authorities had come under harsh criticism for failing to provide shelter for the homeless during the cold spell, which began last Thursday and reached its lowpoint Saturday night, when the temperature at the Civic Center dipped to 36 degrees.

By Tuesday, it was several degrees warmer--with an overnight low of 43 predicted for Central Los Angeles.

The council’s action Tuesday permits the homeless to stay in the council chamber and several other spots in and around City Hall from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. daily through Friday, when the council will decide whether to extend the program.

A council committee remained in session past 6 p.m. Tuesday, however, so the homeless had to remain outside a while longer. But by 9 p.m., about 50 street people were bedded down in the middle and side aisles of the marble-columned chamber--some of them enjoying special chicken dinners donated by Chicken George, a nearby fast food restaurant, and the Faithful Central Baptist Church.

One of the first to enter was Sylvia Castro, 23, who was carrying her 3-month-old son, Thomas Ricardo, in her arms. She sank down in the place indicated by one of the monitors appointed to arrange sleeping space and leaned her head against a seat.

“I don’t know what’s going to become of me,” she said.

She said she and her infant had been on the streets since they left the home for unwed mothers in Long Beach where Thomas Richardo was born.

“I can’t take a job, I have to take care of the baby,” she said. “We stay a day at a time in churches and missions. But at least we’ve got a place to sleep tonight. . . . “

Ted Hayes, a leader of the downtown homeless community, took charge of security for the housing operation, and applauded the council’s action saying, “These people are showing that their hearts are not cold.”

“This is symbolic,” he said later, just before the group was admitted to the council chamber. “This is historic. This is a political statement--that’s why we are going to ask you to be searched tonight for weapons. We don’t want to mess up. We don’t want anything stupid to happen . . . so if you don’t want to be searched for weapons, then you go somewhere else.”

‘A Good Job So Far’

Paul McGee, who heads the regular City Hall security force, said Hayes’ group appeared to be “doing a very good job so far.”

Though the council had authorized use of both the north and south lobby entrances to City Hall and other spots, Hayes used only the council chamber and the north lobby, where another 30 sleepers were accommodated. He explained that he did not have enough monitors to guarantee order anywhere else.

About 400 more street people were taken by bus to a city warehouse in the 2800 block of South Alameda Street.

Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates spurned the council’s request to also open Parker Center police headquarters, two blocks from City Hall, to the homeless. He labeled the council action a “terrible mistake” that will draw more homeless people to Los Angeles. He also asserted that the vast majority of homeless are “alcoholics and vagrants” who “are homeless because they choose to be homeless.”

“Our comparatively mild winters are already a great attraction to thousands of transients,” Gates told a press conference. “Opening up public buildings as public shelters will undoubtedly attract thousands more from across the nation.”

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky said Gates’ statement “ . . . makes Marie Antoinette look like a humanitarian. I guess the chief says ‘Let them eat blankets.’ ”

Liability Explained

Deputy City Atty. Julie Downey advised the council that it could be forced to pay for any injuries suffered by homeless people who take advantage of the shelter.

“If you have a difficult population, a population that brings health problems, behavior problems and those kinds of problems that may lead to personal injury . . . it’s clear our exposure to liability increases,” Downey said.

But council members argued Tuesday that the need to help the homeless outweighs the liability risks that led to the earlier decision.

“We have a crisis,” Councilman Richard Alatorre told his colleagues. “It would be irresponsible for us, using the liability issue alone, as the only reason for us not acting. . . . We have a moral obligation to act.”

“Forget about the risks,” Councilman Ernani Bernardi told his colleagues. “Every time you walk into City Hall, the city assumes a liability.”

‘Real Street Scene’

“What did we do for the sponsors of the Street Scene?” Bernardi asked. “We provided them with a $30,000 insurance policy. . . . The real street scene is what happens every night in downtown, in Van Nuys, in Venice and in many other areas of the city. That’s the real street scene in . . . Los Angeles, and that’s the one that doesn’t have any glamour attached to it. It’s not a constituency. I guess they (the homeless) don’t have any votes.”

Yaroslavsky implied criticism of Bradley when he asked Deputy Mayor Grace M. Davis if the mayor had examined whether the city should provide shelter to the homeless, notwithstanding the liability questions.

“Has there been any initiative in your office to say, ‘What are the risks of assuming the liability?’ ” Yaroslavsky asked. “Has there been any conversation about the mayor recommending that we assume the liability and let the chips fall where they may?”

Mayor Defended

“No, that’s why we’re here today,” Davis responded. “We thought it should be discussed in council.”

Webb defended Bradley’s initial reluctance.

“When the mayor left for Africa early Saturday morning, there was no sense of emergency that we have now,” Webb said, adding that no deaths had been reported then.

The four hypothermia-related deaths reported by the coroner included an elderly man whose body was found Saturday in an abandoned car on East 23rd Street; a man who died the same night at a hospital after being found unconscious at a park in Paramount; the fatal heart attack suffered by a woman in Chinatown and the death of a transient at Hansen Dam Park in Pacoima.

‘State of Emergency’

Webb noted that a proposal to open city buildings to house the homeless has been languishing in one of the council’s committees since March, 1986, adding that “the state of emergency today moved the council into action.”

E. Brooks Treidler, assistant general manager of the city Department of General Services, which is in charge of city buildings, said the facilities made available by the council should provide shelter for about 250 people.

Treidler said he has ordered extra security but expects no problems. Portable toilets were set up. Total costs for the three-night experiment should run the city $3,000, officials said.

The council Tuesday also called on the city’s Housing Authority Commission to hold an emergency meeting to discuss providing shelter for the homeless at 22 public housing projects throughout Los Angeles. Leila Gonzalez-Correa, executive director of the authority, said that if the commission approves her recommendation, as expected, they could start housing 200 people in projects as early as Saturday.

A Minor Change

Frank Hernandez, 26, and his wife, Kim, 31, said opening the council chamber meant only a minor change of residence for them. They had been “camping out,” he explained, in various locations just across from City Hall for the past few weeks.

“This is fine,” he said. “And we appreciate it. But we’d have appreciated it more if it had been a few days earlier.”

Nonetheless, one of the council chamber sleepers, a newcomer to Los Angeles who said his only name is “Jess,” expressed frank amazement. Like most of the others, he got news of the new shelter by word of mouth.

“I got off the bus from Texas today,” he said, “and I asked a guy on the street where I could find a bed . . . and he said, ‘Hey, man! Just go over to City Hall. . . . !”