Despite the Chill, Armory Remains Closed to Homeless

Even though nighttime temperatures in the coldest populated area of Los Angeles County--the Antelope Valley--have routinely fallen below 40 degrees this month, local officials have been unable to persuade the state to open the Palmdale National Guard armory as a shelter for the area’s homeless until at least Thanksgiving.

State armories, including five elsewhere in Los Angeles County, were made available last year starting Nov. 14 on nights expected to be colder than 40 degrees. Even that was two weeks beyond the planned starting date, county officials said.

The armory in Palmdale was not among those provided to county cold-weather programs last year by the state Office of Emergency Services. But because of the area’s growing homeless population and cold winter nights when the temperature drops into the 20s, it is included this year.

The start of the state program has been delayed by an effort to implement new regulations aimed at solving health and safety issues, including fights and problems with sanitation at some shelters, that have generated complaints in the past, state officials said.

Local officials are not unsympathetic to the efforts to prevent a repeat of those problems. But, meanwhile, the weather is growing colder, especially in the Antelope Valley, which has one of the harshest and longest winters in Southern California.

“I don’t object to the state setting new safeguards, but if they are going to have a cold-weather program, they should make the armories available when it gets cold,” said Larry Johnson, assistant director of the county Department of Community and Senior Citizen Services.

Betty Passerello of the state Office of Emergency Services acknowledged that “we have stumbled a little bit this year” with the sheltering program. “I think this program has worked very effectively, but it has not been without its problems,” she said.

Between November and March of last year, 166,000 people took shelter on cold nights in armories in California, 11,359 of them in Los Angeles County, according to state statistics.

Fights, attempted murders and rapes occurred at armories in some counties last year, Passerello said. In others, officials were not equipped to deal with the illnesses of the homeless people or to clean up the facilities after they were used. As a result, there were numerous complaints from the National Guard and others.

“You put 200 people in a facility that is not designed for them and you are going to have problems,” she said. The state is still drawing up new requirements for counties to hire public health experts, security guards and professional cleanup crews at armories this year.

Los Angeles County already takes such measures, Johnson said. He said his department plans to step up lobbying efforts this week to get the shelter program started as soon as possible.

With the high desert’s homeless population growing, the special dangers posed by cold weather should be recognized earlier next year, said Kathryn Barger, a deputy for Supervisor Mike Antonovich who works with programs for the homeless.

Officials are still trying to determine the exact number of homeless people in the Antelope Valley. When Lancaster opened a homeless shelter last year, social workers estimated the number to be in the hundreds and possibly higher.

“It’s something we are going to have to address, both morally and due to the strict guidelines” that call for emergency shelters when the temperature falls below 40 degees, Barger said.

Passerello agreed. “We better revisit it if it really has been that cold down there,” she said. She said her office is exploring the possibility of finding an interim facility to use as a shelter.

The nighttime temperature in the Antelope Valley hovered near emergency levels even before the county began the cold-weather program Nov. 1. According to National Weather Service statistics, the low temperature in Lancaster dipped below 40 degrees nine days in October, with an average low in the upper 40s.

This month, even though daytime temperatures were in the 60s and 70s, the average low has been in the high 30s, said meteorologist Steve Burback of Weather Data, a private meteorological company. On Nov. 5, the low dropped to 24 degrees.

Lynn Davis, director of the Lancaster city shelter, said the sooner the armory opens, the better.

The county’s cold-weather program has been referring homeless people to the 40-bed city shelter operated by Catholic Charities. A maximum of 35 of the shelter’s beds have been occupied in recent weeks, with as many as nine people being referred from the county’s program, officials said.

“Right now it’s not a problem,” Johnson said, agreeing with state officials that the current demand for shelter is being met.

But Johnson said the number of people using the Lancaster shelter will grow as the weather gets worse and the threat of snow and rain increases. The county may then have to provide hotel and motel vouchers, which cost the county $25 a person rather than the $10 per person it costs the county for the armory beds.

“That’s a drain on the program,” which lasts through March and has a $500,000 county budget, Johnson said. “To the extent the state can’t meet their obligation, it’s a drain. We don’t want to run out of money.”

Furthermore, the cold-weather program could disrupt the Lancaster shelter, which provides social and vocational services for ongoing residents, Johnson said.

Davis, the director of the Lancaster shelter, said the number of people using the county’s program does not reflect the size of the valley’s homeless population. Some may not know about the shelter program and others may not have a way to get to the city’s shelter.

The growth in the number of homeless people in the Antelope Valley has mirrored the area’s population boom overall and is reflected in the increasing number of applications for public aid and housing vouchers.

A visible symbol is an abandoned farm building on Sierra Highway near Avenue I that people on the street call the “Tin Shed.” The vast metal building has only two walls and a concrete floor, but it provides some shelter for as many as 20 homeless people who build bonfires there at night to keep warm and who sleep in lean-tos and old cars.

Sheriff’s deputies, who have conducted periodic sweeps of the building because of complaints of thefts from nearby businesses, say many of the shed’s residents are alcoholics and drug addicts.