Transients Sent to Mission’s Back Door : Front Entrance Closed for Funeral but Most of the Men Don’t Mind

During three-day funeral rites for Cardinal Timothy Manning at St. Vibiana Cathedral, the adjacent Union Rescue Mission has closed its front doors and redirected the Skid Row transients who line its front sidewalks to an alley behind the mission.

But the men sheltered and fed at the mission said Wednesday they don’t mind going through the mission’s back door or lounging about in the back alley--temporarily.

‘Have Some Respect’

“It’s a good thing,” said Kevin, 33, who declined to give his last name. “I mean, have some respect for the guy. . . . This way, the people (at St. Vibiana Cathedral) don’t have to be hassled by people on the street. They would be (begged) for money, cars would probably be broken into.”

A wheelchair-bound man who also frequents the mission said the change was little more than an inconvenience, really “no biggie.”

“I know this has to be done because of the cardinal,” said the man, who would identify himself only as Mike. “I guess they don’t want ‘undesireable’ people out.”

Mike said he doesn’t view himself or the other transients as “undesireable” but figured that is how city officials and some who have been attending the funeral services see him.

“I know how they see me,” he said. “They have a lot of money and a lot of prominent people coming in, and they want to close the mission down.”

A 44-year-old man standing nearby called the move “necessary.”

“If all the (homeless) people had been out there, it would have been a mess,” said the man, who would not identify himself.

Still, he said, city officials and those attending the church should not just ignore the transients because they are out of sight.

“Don’t just move people around and not care what happens to them,” he said. “The sinful thing is that (the transients) are people who can do things and they won’t even be noticed.”

Officials at the mission said they were approached Monday by representatives of the Los Angeles Police Department who asked them to reroute the waiting transients by the time services began Tuesday night.

“Their concern was for security of those participating in services for Cardinal Manning,” said Ray McCann, a member of the mission’s staff. “Some men were a little disgruntled, but we don’t really mind. We have extended our condolences to the church.”

Police spokesman Cmdr. William Booth said officers asked the mission to move the transients because they have “bathrooms and campfires on the sidewalk” and it would be safer and more sanitary to have them congregating in the back of the mission.

Bill Rivera, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, said the church played no role in the decision.

“My understanding is that the police department, working with the mission, asked if it would have the people come through the back alley into the building,” he said.

Cathedral administrators, Rivera added, have a good working relationship with the mission. Claiming that the mission’s supper line usually extends in front of the front doors of the cathedral, he said church officials “just asked (the mission) to turn the line in the other direction.”

Lee Nelson, assistant to the supervisor of the mission, said that while they understand the need for the measure, the shuffle has not been without problems.

Crowd Control

“We almost had a bad crowd control situation this morning,” he said. “Some guys didn’t like being taken out of their normal routine, and they wanted to go out front. But we took care of it.”

Nelson said meal time for the transients lasted about 30 minutes longer than usual because the men and women were not accustomed to going to the rear of the building to receive their food.

This was not the first time the mission routine was disrupted by activities at St. Vibiana. In 1987, the mission was closed and the transients housed in a city warehouse so that security could be maintained when Pope John Paul II stayed at the cathedral during his Los Angeles visit.