Homeless Offered 60 Days of Shelter : Social services: The city has found new facilities for the program after the National Guard refused to let two armories be used daily.

The city of Los Angeles on Monday launched a new 60-day shelter program for the homeless but had to find new homes for part of the program itself. The National Guard, citing factors including the Persian Gulf mobilization, refused to allow two armories to be converted from part-time shelters to nightly use.

New shelters will be established for the San Fernando Valley homeless at Van Nuys Airport and on the Westside at Stoner Park Recreation Center.

The West Los Angeles and Van Nuys National Guard armories had been designated as two of 13 shelters in the 3-year-old city program, which the City Council last week voted to operate on a continuing basis during the coldest part of the winter. In past years, the program operated only on nights when temperatures dipped below state emergency guidelines.

The city decision and the ensuing dispute with the National Guard grew out of a city study that found the Van Nuys Armory was used on 40 days of the 60-day cold weather period last year and 44 days the previous winter, said Bob Vilmur, coordinator of city programs for the homeless. The frequency of use indicated the need for the program to switch to a continuing basis, he said.

Officials decided that opening both the Van Nuys and West Los Angeles armories, and the other 11 shelters, for the entire 60 days would serve more homeless people and that the continuity would allow more and better medical and social services to be offered at the shelters.

“It was the most humane way to do it,” said Wendy Greuel, an aide to Mayor Tom Bradley. “We are disappointed that they did not allow us to do it this way.”

But Guard commanders told Bradley’s office the armories should be used only on an emergency basis. The Guard cannot open the armories to the homeless for two months consecutively because that could lead to similar demands in colder parts of the state and because the presence of the homeless in the armories could interfere with preparations by Guard units that may be called to active duty in Operation Desert Shield, said Sgt. Phil Jordan, a spokesman for the California National Guard in Sacramento.

“These are not intended as full-time dormitories,” Jordan said. “It’s OK under emergency circumstances.”

Jordan also disputed city statistics on the Van Nuys shelter, saying it was used on 35--rather than 40--days of the cold weather period last winter.

State guidelines call for armories to be opened as emergency shelters when the temperature falls below 40 degrees, or below 50 degrees if there is more than a 50% chance of rain.

City officials now plan to house the homeless at a hangar at Van Nuys Airport in the Valley, where cold temperatures have brought an average of more than 40 people to the National Guard Armory on five nights since the beginning of November.

The Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners is expected to act Wednesday to approve the city’s request to use the hangar, Vilmur said.

The former Air National Guard facility was a “nose hangar” for a large transport plane. The structure has a large opening on one side through which the rear of the plane protruded, officials said. In order to convert it into a shelter, workers are filling in the aperture with aluminum sheets, said Nancy Bianconi of L.A. Family Housing Corp., a nonprofit agency that administers the facility.

The homeless program at the West Los Angeles armory near Westwood will move temporarily to a 150-bed recreation center in Stoner Park this week, Vilmur said, while program officials search for another facility to use until Jan. 15.

The city of Santa Monica has agreed to provide the program with a shelter from Jan. 15 until Feb. 15.

Only five people showed up at the West Los Angeles armory Saturday night, the first night that the shelter was activated this season. But officials said they have housed up to 200 people there in past years.

After Feb. 15, the National Guard armories will again be available on a night-to-night basis through March, officials said.

Homeless people are bused to the 13 shelters from pickup points around the city.