Council Asks Governor to Open Armories as Shelters for 60 Consecutive Nights

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to urge Gov. George Deukmejian to allow the Van Nuys National Guard Armory to be used as a shelter for the homeless for 60 consecutive nights each winter instead of only sporadically.

The armory, which has been opened to the homeless since 1988 as a shelter only on cold or wet winter nights, belongs to the state National Guard, which is under the command of the governor in peacetime.

City officials say access to the Van Nuys armory at 17330 Victory Blvd., and another in West Los Angeles, is important to the success of a plan under review at City Hall to provide 60 days of uninterrupted homeless shelter service each winter.

At present, the city provides shelter to the homeless from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. at the two armories and at six city recreation centers only if weather forecasts predict temperatures below 40 degrees, or a 50% chance of rain and temperatures below 50 degrees. When either condition is met, the shelters are opened to homeless people for up to three days.

But Mayor Tom Bradley and the city’s Community Development Department are pressing for an expanded program to open the shelters for 60 consecutive days during the heart of the winter season, regardless of weather. City officials said that being able to rely on the armory shelters would allow them to offer services, such as job and mental health counseling, that cannot be organized on short notice.

In recent days, Bradley has intervened to ask National Guard officials to agree to the 60-day program, said Bob Vilmur, the city’s homeless coordinator. The 14-0 council vote Tuesday, without debate, was designed to show state officials the depth of the city’s commitment to the program.

A city report said the Van Nuys armory was open 36 nights last winter and 45 nights in 1988-89.

Col. Roger Goodrich, public affairs officer for the state Military Department, said that the guard is reluctant to set aside its armories for an extended period as shelters, but that no final decision has been made.

“We’re not a hotel for the homeless in a carte blanche way,” Goodrich said. “But we are ready to help if there’s an emergency.”

Armories are not vacant buildings, he noted. “We have full-time employees at our armories,” he said. “These are places of business.”

Goodrich said military use of the armories must come first. He noted that a San Rafael military police unit placed on alert for possible mobilization as part of the Desert Shield operation in the Persian Gulf is attached to an armory that has been used as a homeless shelter.

“The floor where the homeless slept has now got to be filled up with equipment and vehicles as the unit prepares for possible mobilization,” he said.