Homeless Displaced by Papal Visit Will Get City, Diocesan Shelter

Weeks of negotiations over the fate of homeless men who will be displaced by security restrictions during Pope John Paul II’s visit ended Friday with agreements that officials said will ensure that no Skid Row transients are forced onto the streets by the pontiff’s trip.

The Los Angeles City Council formally turned over to the Union Rescue Mission a city warehouse that will temporarily house the homeless. The mission’s functions will be constrained by the Pope’s visit because it is next door to St. Vibiana’s Cathedral, where the Pope will spend two nights.

At the urging of Archbishop Roger M. Mahony, Catholic Charities of Los Angeles also offered shelter in its St. Vincent de Paul downtown center to some Union Rescue Mission clients who cannot stay in the warehouse.

Carl Fielstra, a member of the Union Rescue Mission board, said the agreements mean that services ordinarily offered to the transients will be available during John Paul’s stay.

“We’re pleased,” he said. “Our concern going in was that they (the homeless) were going to be asked to sacrifice.”

Capt. Rick Batson, commander of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Central Division, said he is confident that papal security officials and the homeless will be able to coexist.

“We have a real fine working relationship with the mission at this time,” he said.

The warehouse agreement--approved unanimously by the council without discussion--will allow placement of nearly 400 chairs and several tables in the one-story brick structure at 527 Crocker St., where the city stores surplus furniture.

Transients will be allowed to stay overnight in the chairs, just as they do now in 385 chairs set up in the Union Rescue Mission chapel.

The 86 beds used nightly at the Union Rescue Mission cannot fit in the warehouse, so the men who stay in them will be housed at the St. Vincent de Paul center, Fielstra said. Efforts will be made to give beds to the ill and infirm, he said.

About 1,300 meals served daily to the mission’s guests will be ladled out at the Crocker Street warehouse during the Pope’s visit, officials said. The warehouse will open Sept. 14, the night before the Pope arrives, and close Sept. 17, when he leaves.

Another 185 men enrolled in the mission’s alcohol and rehabilitation programs will be allowed to stay there throughout the Pope’s visit, officials said. The mission’s medical clinic will also maintain operations, despite earlier fears that it might have to be relocated.

Sister Georgiana Cahill, a Catholic Charities spokeswoman, said the St. Vincent de Paul center is “very excited” about housing some of those displaced by the Pope. Diocesan officials earlier had disassociated themselves from the relocation plan.