Van Nuys Trailer : Aid Station to Be Set up for Homeless

In the first such effort of its kind in Los Angeles, city officials plan to transport hundreds of homeless people from across the San Fernando Valley to a trailer in Van Nuys for counseling, health care and other services.

The 60-foot trailer will be set up from Aug. 23 to Sept. 16 in the Salvation Army parking lot at 14917 Victory Blvd., said Bob Vilmur, the city’s homeless projects coordinator.

After Sept. 16, the trailer will be moved to a different location in the city, where it will operate for a month before being moved to another part of the city. Its next location has not been decided, officials said.

The program is part of a new effort to reach out to the city’s homeless population, officials said.

Plans call for homeless people to be picked up by vans at Valley parks and other areas where they congregate. After receiving the services at the trailer, the homeless will be returned to where they were picked up if social service agencies are unable to find them shelter, officials said.

Thousands Helped

There is not enough shelter to house the estimated 3,500 to 5,000 homeless people in the Valley, officials said.

Los Angeles Councilman Joel Wachs, who represents the area near the Salvation Army location, said the proposal “sounds fine” to him.

“Someone’s got to do something about the homeless,” Wachs said Friday.

Last year, the Salvation Army in Van Nuys assisted thousands of homeless people, “and we didn’t get one complaint from a neighbor,” said Capt. John Purdell, commanding officer.

“It’s just an adjunct to what we are already doing,” he said.

The trailer will house representatives of the county Departments of Mental Health and Social Services, the state Employment Development Department and the Social Security and Veterans administrations.

Handing Out Flyers

The city previously has picked up homeless people and transported them to recreation centers during cold weather. But Vilmur said the new program, which is voluntary, will be the city’s first effort to bring people to services.

Services provided at the trailer will be counseling, health care, job information and applications for welfare, Social Security and veterans benefits.

Beginning next week, city parks and recreation staff members will hand out flyers to homeless people in Valley parks advising them of the outreach program, Vilmur said.

Vilmur said services similar to those that will be offered at the trailer are available to the homeless but often they have trouble reaching them.

“What we’re doing is twofold: one, we’re solving their transportation problem; secondly, we’re concentrating many of those services at one location,” he said.

Vilmur said no one really knows the number of homeless in the city or in the Valley, but he estimates 3,500 to 5,000 are in the Valley and 33,000 are in the city.