Homeless Aid Group Finds Needed Cash

The financially troubled Irvine Temporary Housing group has raised enough money to keep its program for the homeless running through January.

But the group’s plans to expand its program and possibly to build a permanent shelter remain clouded as the City Council meets tonight at 6:30 to discuss whether to seek a new site for a central facility or end its pursuit of a federal grant to construct the shelter.

Two weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development canceled a $496,000 grant awarded the city to convert a vacant dog kennel into a 50-bed shelter for homeless families. Federal officials said the site, in the 1500 block of Sand Canyon Avenue, was “environmentally unacceptable” because it is too close to the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Jan. 25 Deadline

The city has until Jan. 25 to find another acceptable site and keep the money. Irvine Temporary Housing was to operate the shelter.

Officials of nonprofit Irvine Temporary Housing said contributions totaling more than $16,000 have been received since the group went public with its financial woes in late November. Roy Werner, one of the group’s directors, described the fund-raising push in recent weeks “as the most successful 30 days” in the organization’s three-year history.

The group had set a goal to raise $8,000 by today or face a sharp curtailment of its decentralized housing program for homeless families. At present, the group houses families in five furnished apartments around the city.

In a move to expand its program, the housing group, supported by a majority of City Council members, applied for and received in October a $496,000 federal grant to convert a vacant city-owned dog kennel into a shelter for the homeless. The proposal touched off an emotional debate, and prompted some critics to suggest that potential donors were withholding contributions in opposition to the kennel conversion on the city’s relatively undeveloped east side.

Then on Nov. 30, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development informed the city it was canceling the grant, citing the fact that the shelter’s proposed location on Sand Canyon Avenue is directly under the landing pattern for jet fighters.

Assistant City Manager Paul Brady Jr. said Irvine officials have tentatively identified 11 other possible sites to locate a shelter for the homeless, but the city controls only four of those locations. The rest, he said, are privately owned, and acquiring any of those sites--even if they are available--would greatly add to the expense of the program, which Brady said the city cannot step in and finance on its own.