West Hollywood : Homeless Fill Shelter

Faced with more homeless people than they can accommodate, West Hollywood officials in the last week have been forced to turn away people seeking refuge in an emergency shelter the city provides.

“On the one hand, it tells you that our program is needed and is a success, but it’s a shame that we can’t provide service to all of the people who are in need of help,” said Jodi Curlee, the city’s director of social services.

As authorities have begun enforcing a midnight-to-6 a.m. curfew in West Hollywood’s parks and word of the shelter has spread, as many as 20 people a night have been turned away from the shelter in the West Hollywood Park Auditorium, she said.

After approving the long-debated curfew, the City Council last month decided to open the auditorium from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. as a gesture to the estimated 150 homeless people living in the city’s two parks. The temporary shelter has room for up to 50 people. The city has plans to open a permanent shelter for the homeless next year.

Although no more than 25 people took advantage of the shelter the first three weeks it was open, Curlee called it inevitable that the shelter would reach capacity. “It takes a while for word to spread,” she said.

Of the four people arrested for violating the park curfew since the law went into effect, none have been homeless people, said Sgt. Joseph Anda of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The Sheriff’s Department had pushed for the curfew, citing a increase in crime in Plummer and West Hollywood parks, often involving homeless people as victims.