Council Keeps Trailers for Homeless in Place--Barely : Zoning: The vote was 7 to 4 to bar the temporary shelters from the grounds of a Sepulveda church. Eight votes were needed.

The Los Angeles City Council came within one vote Tuesday of barring two city trailers, meant to serve as temporary shelters for homeless families, from the grounds of a Sepulveda church, leaving the emotional issue undecided.

The council, siding with neighbors who rallied against the proposal, voted 7 to 4 to overturn an earlier decision by the Board of Zoning Appeals to allow the trailers to be set up on the grounds of the Sepulveda Unitarian-Universalist Society on Haskell Avenue near Plummer Street.

But because eight votes are needed, another vote will have to be taken, perhaps as early as today.

The temporary housing program began more than two years ago, when Mayor Tom Bradley called for the purchase of 102 of the mobile homes at a Utah construction site. Primarily because of community opposition, only 61 of the trailers have been placed, most of them on public land.

Neighbors of the Sepulveda church said its location is too far from services the homeless need to resume normal lives, such as counseling and job placement.

“We’re not objecting to helping the homeless,” Cindy Calczynski, who lives nearby, told the council. “We do not feel that our particular neighborhood is in any way, shape or form the proper place to put these people.”

Church members and other supporters of the city-funded program said neighbors were reacting to unfounded and selfish fears involving their property values and safety.

“Time and time again, I’ve encountered this, ‘Yes, we care. Yes, we care. But let’s take care of them somewhere else.’ It’s a social cancer,” said the Rev. Richard R. Davis, vice president of the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council.

The proponents said the program is temporary, lasting for two years, with individual families staying a maximum of six months. The Rev. Charlotte Shivvers of the Sepulveda Unitarian-Universalist Society said the proposal would provide “a beautiful opportunity” to test the program.

Because of the absence of three council members Tuesday--and some confusion over what was being voted on--the issue will have to be reconsidered. If the council does not act by Nov. 11, the Board of Zoning Appeals’ decision to allow the trailers at the church will stand.

The four council members who sided with the church said all areas of the city must share responsibility for helping the homeless.

“I don’t think two families is too much to ask a community to support,” Councilman Joel Wachs said. “If we can’t do this, what are we ever going to do about the 33,000 homeless out there on the streets?”

Also backing the church were council members Ruth Galanter, Marvin Braude and Ernani Bernardi.

But Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents the district where the church is located, repeated the opposition that caused his Planning and Land Use Management Committee to recommend that the trailers be kept out of the Sepulveda location.

“The homeless need more than just shelter. They need social services that go along with getting back into society,” Bernson said. “This was a very tough decision for me.”