Giving Shelter : Religious Community Reaches Out to Give a Growing Number of Homeless a Place to Congregate

On a weed-covered lot in Lake View Terrace sit three weather-beaten trailers belonging to Peace Lutheran Church. The small trailers provide temporary shelter for homeless families, and on a recent afternoon, Robin Lowe groped for the right words to describe what being able to stay there meant to her family.

“It’s hard for me to even imagine what would have happened to us otherwise,” said Lowe, a thin, tired-looking woman who appears older than her 32 years. Her husband had lost his job, she had just given birth to a son, there was a teen-age daughter to look after, and they had been forced out of their rented Sylmar home.

“The only alternative we had was the car,” she said. “Can you imagine us living in a car, especially with a baby?”

That same day, a red-haired man of about 30 who had been living in a tent staked in the Simi Hills came to the parish hall at St. Francis of Assisi Episcopal Church in Simi Valley to spend the night on a cot surrounded by half a dozen other men. He declined to give his name but was willing to talk.

“I’d rather be here talking to the other guys than sitting out in the hills by myself listening to the radio and hoping the cops don’t come by,” he said. “But I wouldn’t try and sleep out in the city. It’s safer among the coyotes and rattlesnakes than people.”

By all estimates, the number of homeless people in Los Angeles and surrounding communities continues to grow. And despite stepped-up government efforts, available emergency shelters still do not meet the need.

The estimates vary widely, but the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health says that as many as 55,000 homeless people might roam the county. The United Way says that up to 1,500 might be in the San Fernando Valley (activists for the homeless say the figure is closer to 5,000), and Simi Valley officials have estimated that more than 100 homeless families scramble to survive in that Ventura County city.

Los Angeles County has 6,400 emergency shelter beds, but more than 1,800 people are turned away each night because of a lack of space, according to a recent study by Shelter Partnership, a nonprofit Los Angeles agency that provides technical assistance to homeless programs.

And when the government’s safety net proves inadequate, it is the religious community to which the homeless most often turn for help. Numerous congregations in the San Fernando Valley area participate in food banks or collect blankets and warm clothes for the homeless. Others bring toys to children of homeless families and dip into petty cash to help the homeless who knock on their doors.

“I think what they do is great,” said Alan Wilkins, who coordinates homeless programs for the Los Angeles County Department of Community and Senior Citizens Services. “There’s such an unmet need out there that any group, sectarian or otherwise, that gets something worthwhile going has our support.”

St. Andrew and St. Charles Episcopal Church in Granada Hills recently paid first and last month’s rent on an apartment for a homeless family, and Sun Valley’s Bethel Christian Reformed Church allows homeless families to stay from time to time in its old parsonage.

“We always seem to be trying to get a place for someone,” said Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs of Encino’s Shir Chadash-New Reform Congregation. “If we can’t refer them somewhere, we give them money for a night or two in a motel.”

However, few congregations are involved in ongoing, organized housing efforts such as those at Peace Lutheran and St. Francis of Assisi, noted Priscilla Thompson, who chairs the homeless program for the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council, the area’s largest religious-based coalition.

Those who get involved tend to concentrate their efforts on helping homeless families rather than single people. Often, they also try to steer away from the long-term homeless because of the more complicated problems they present.

Insufficient funds and a lack of know-how are prime reasons that more congregations do not get involved. Insurance, zoning and community opposition are other factors.

The 200-member Central Lutheran Church of Van Nuys considered placing trailers for the homeless on its property but backed off after learning an additional $1 million in insurance coverage would be required. “We’re already insurance poor,” said parish secretary Olga Peterson. “We can’t handle this.”

Even when congregations band together they might still encounter more problems than they can handle. The Valley Interfaith Council learned that lesson in 1986 when it turned a North Hollywood motel into a homeless shelter, only to be swamped with unexpected expenses that forced it to pull out of the project.

Fear of the homeless also keeps some congregations from getting more involved, according to Raynes Gordon of the Valley Mayors’ Fund for the Homeless, a fund-raising agency organized by the honorary mayors of Valley communities.

“It’s the NIMBY syndrome,” he said. “People stereotype the homeless. They hear about problems other congregations have and become fearful of what might happen. So they say ‘not in my back yard.’ ”

The ‘not in my back yard’ syndrome was blamed for the recent rejection by the Los Angeles City Council of a request by the Sepulveda Unitarian Universalist Society to install two trailers on its property after neighbors complained that property values would fall.

At Peace Lutheran, however, such concerns were not even considered when the 80-member congregation affiliated with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod decided to take action in 1987. Fund-raising events brought in $10,000 to purchase the three trailers, and the plumbing work and furnishings were donated. The first of the seven families that have since found shelter at the church moved in during the spring of that year.

“We were kind of naive about this,” said the Rev. John Imme. “We weren’t even aware that the city was starting its own trailer program or that we had to go through red tape.”

Although the church did not go through official channels, Imme said the city has allowed the trailers to remain because neighbors have not complained. To guard against trouble, the congregation tries to be very careful about who is allowed to live there. Drug and alcohol users are carefully screened out, as are people considered emotionally unstable.

Families with children “who can demonstrate they can get back on their feet” are the only ones allowed, he said. A six-month maximum stay is allowed and residents are required to contribute $250 monthly; $150 goes toward covering utilities and other expenses associated with the trailers, while the remainder is saved for residents to rent an apartment when they leave the church grounds.

Food is also provided, if needed, and church attendance is required. “It’s not so much that we’re trying to make Lutherans out of them, but that by being surrounded by a caring group of people all sorts of resources will be available--baby sitters, job possibilities, friends. The homeless tend to withdraw and this helps them to connect with community again,” Imme said.

Robin Lowe and her husband are working, and when their six-month stay at Peace Lutheran is up in mid-December, the family plans to move into a Valley apartment they have already secured with a down payment.

“We hope to be settled in by Christmas,” she said. “What a blessing that will be.”

In 1986, Simi Valley officials, responding to neighbors’ complaints, forced St. Francis of Assisi to evict dozens of homeless people who had lived in trailers and campers at the church for months. A year later, the church was again housing the homeless, but this time as part of a cooperative effort with 17 other Simi congregations.

St. Francis of Assisi is one of seven “host” churches that take turns housing up to 20 homeless people one night each week. The other 11 churches take turns providing volunteers to run the operation and meals. Missouri Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Church of the Brethren, United Church of Christ, Church of Christ, Presbyterian Church U.S.A., United Methodist, Southern Baptist, Roman Catholic and Seventh-day Adventist congregations are among those also participating in the 3-year-old PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter) Program.

A similar effort is being organized by Conejo Valley congregations.

PADS only operates during the five coldest months of the year, November through March, explained the Rev. Jirair Sogomian, pastor of Shepherd of the Valley United Church of Christ, who directed the program its first two years. (The dinner program is year-round.)

Limiting the stay to one night a week alleviated the concern of neighbors, gained the support of Simi officials and sidestepped the need for additional insurance, Sogomian said.

“The genius of this program is that it requires very little overhead,” he added. “We only spent $2,200 each of the first two years.”

Another approach to helping the homeless has been taken by Simi Valley Foursquare Church. There, the emphasis is on helping one family at a time by setting them up with jobs and a place to live, and providing everything from financial and psychological counseling to baby-sitting, medical and legal needs for six months or longer.

“We did not want to end up feeding and housing the same people year after year,” said Pastor David Edwards. “Our hope is that by concentrating on just one family, we can ensure that this is one family that will get back on its feet.”

Simi Valley Foursquare’s effort is connected with Project Home Again, a nationwide endeavor coordinated by World Vision, a Monrovia-based, Christian international relief agency. The church recently became involved and helped its first family--a couple with three children--move into a rented home the last Saturday in November.

Project Home Again only tries to help families with minor children that have been left homeless through what is perceived to be a temporary crisis. “These are the situationally homeless, people who have suffered a loss of job, illness or natural disaster,” explained Jana Webb of World Vision. “They’re really the cream of the homeless.”

Dealing with the “chronically homeless” is another matter, one that few congregations are prepared to handle, Webb said. “The emotional baggage the long-term homeless bring with them--the alcohol, the erratic behavior, the stealing, the drugs--can really tear at a congregation that does not have the infrastructure to deal with it.

“We want the church to have a success, because many times this is their first time getting involved.”

Those that work with the homeless acknowledge that their efforts are a drop in the bucket compared to the extent of the problem. Likewise, they all recognize that getting involved means putting the congregation at some risk.

“Everyone gets ripped off sooner or later, even from families,” said Gordon of the Valley Mayors Fund.

Bob Harns, the deacon at Bethel Christian Reformed Church in Sun Valley, related how the “con artist” father of one family that stayed at the church “fleeced a lot of members out of a lot of money.”

Imme noted how he was shocked one day to see a mother who lived in a church trailer with her two young children being handcuffed by police after it was learned that her boyfriend was selling stolen cars.

“I never know if I’m being ripped off or not,” added Jacobs, the rabbi at Shir Chadash-New Reform Congregation.

Despite the problems, though, the congregations stay involved.

“I think if we’re going to get serious about helping people there is always going to be vulnerability,” said Edwards of Simi Valley Foursquare.

“If you don’t accept risk you can’t help. If you believe that separation from God reads out as separation from each other, then what else can you do but put yourself at risk?”