Proposition 95 Model : Tent City Shuts as 21 Families Get Aid, Homes
Sponsors of a tent encampment for 21 homeless families closed the site in the Sepulveda Dam Recreation area Thursday evening because housing and jobs were found for the occupants in less than 2 days.
The camp was sponsored by proponents of Proposition 95 to demonstrate how passage of the measure would lead to additional services for the homeless. The initiative would raise an estimated $50 million or more statewide for programs for the homeless through fines for violations of health, safety and building codes.
“We did better than we had hoped for,” said Conway Collis, a member of the State Board of Equalization and the major backer of the initiative. “There was no reason to keep them here another night when they all had a place to go.”
Political Goal
The goal was to show that money raised through Proposition 95 could create one-stop centers to bring together an array of social services to aid the homeless quickly, Collis said.
For Manual Esparza, 31, his wife, Carmen, and their five young children, the project meant they no longer had to live out of a pickup truck, as they had since June. They decided to participate in the program after hearing about it from a Latino social service counselor.
“It may be uncomfortable sleeping in a tent, but it is miserable in a truck,” Esparza said. “I have good hands, a mind and feet to run. I can work. We just needed help.”
Funding for the $50,000 project, which originally was to end today, came from donations by Stephen S. Wise Temple and Bel Air Presbyterian Church. About $10,000 was used to buy food and to rent tents, cots, blankets and other equipment. The remaining $40,000 was given to the homeless in the form of checks to apartment managers for first and last months rent and other apartment deposits.
76 People
The 21 families comprise 76 men, women and children. Apartments were found for 12 families. Seven families were placed in transitional housing that offers counseling and other support services, and two were placed in temporary shelters while apartment units are prepared, Collis said.
Jobs were found for 16 unemployed adults, and four families filled out paper work for welfare.
Five large, white tents were erected Tuesday on a dirt lot owned by the Army Corps of Engineers and leased to the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. Collis said the group searched for but was unable to find other shelter, such as a gymnasium.
The project drew mixed reactions from members of the nearby community. A few neighbors along Victory Boulevard brought food and clothing in support.
Several complained that such a camp did not belong near a residential neighborhood.
“I didn’t like the idea of using the homeless people in a political campaign for Proposition 95,” said Milena Miller, president of the Reseda Community Assn. “That is unconscionable to me.”
Many of the homeless said they participated because the effort was a form of social activism that served their interests and publicized the plight of people without housing.
The families, which were either on waiting lists for entry to a shelter or were in shelters awaiting permanent housing, arrived at the site at Victory and White Oak boulevards Wednesday morning. Some came in the cars or small trucks that had been their home.
“At first I thought it would be embarrassing--sleeping in a tent out here,” said Diane Fitzgerald, 32, a mother of two who has stayed in shelters for 2 months after leaving a rat- and roach-infested hotel near downtown Los Angeles.
“Then I thought, what the heck; I don’t have much to lose. I might as well let the public know that people like me can be helped if we can just find help in the first place.”
Pauline Murray, 26, a mother of two, had been evicted from her apartment because it was to undergo renovation. She was unable to find another that she could afford.
“They may have used me for their campaign, but they helped me too,” Murray said. “Two days ago, I didn’t have an apartment or a job. Now I have a new start.”
