SAN FERNANDO VALLEY : $30,000 Saved in Funds for Homeless
A Los Angeles City Council panel Monday adopted a plan to spend $30,000, originally allocated to shelter homeless people in the San Fernando Valley, on similar services in the downtown Skid Row area.
But reallocation of the funds, recommended by the Community Redevelopment and Housing Committee, will not diminish the Valley program to shelter the homeless in cold and wet weather, said Nancy Bianconi, an executive at L. A. Family Housing Corp., the nonprofit agency that runs that program in the Valley.
The $30,000 is the savings realized when L. A. Family obtained Gov. Pete Wilson’s approval to use the Van Nuys National Guard Armory for its shelter program. Originally, the city earmarked $159,213 for the Valley shelter program, when it was assumed that the program would have to be operated, at greater cost, at a Van Nuys Airport hangar.
L. A. Family was unable to argue that it could use the $30,000 in savings productively on sheltering homeless Valley people because its own armory facility is now operating at capacity, providing 150 beds per night, Bianconi said. Bianconi said the Valley has about 10,000 homeless people.
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