Local News in Brief : $325,000 Set Aside for Cold Shelters

Los Angeles County has set aside another $325,000 for its Emergency Cold Weather Homeless Shelter Program, Supervisor Ed Edelman announced Tuesday.

Under the program, homeless people are provided shelter in National Guard armories or given vouchers for hotel rooms when overnight temperatures of 40 degrees or less are predicted, or when the overnight temperature is expected to be 50 degrees or less and there is a 50% probability of rain.

Earlier this month, officials warned that because of unexpectedly cold weather, the county had used about $307,000 of the $325,000 budgeted for the program. But county officials have found $200,000 in Community Development Block Grant funding and $125,000 in Community Block Grant money that can be used for the program, Edelman said.

“We can’t be sure even this money will be enough,” he said. “Our cost projections based on weather information provided us by the National Weather Service indicated it could take as much as $460,000 in shelter funding to get us through the remainder of the winter.”