The Hidden Homeless : Some Cities Downplay Numbers in Their Eagerness to Woo Business and Be Seen as Economically Viable, Advocates Say

A 50-year-old preschool teacher in Pomona ran out of disability payments last year after injuring her back. She fell behind on her rent and now finds herself in a homeless shelter.

A 62-year-old woman in El Monte is on the street after her roommate died of a heart attack and she was evicted for not paying the rent.

A 33-year-old woman in Pasadena lives with her two children in a car after losing her apartment and savings to a cocaine habit.

These are among the homeless people of the San Gabriel Valley. They are black, white and Latino--rarely Asian, homeless activists say, because of tight Asian family networks and more affluence. The homeless include children and senior citizens; the college-educated as well as illiterate. Many don’t have drug or alcohol problems.

The U.S. Census found 1,145 people living in shelters and on the streets of the San Gabriel Valley in 1990, but homeless activists say the real number is much higher. West Covina logged no homeless people, for instance, but local church groups say that up to 100 people crowd into their cold weather shelters in winter.

The number of homeless can be a thorny issue for cities. On one hand, they receive state and federal aid based on population, so each additional person counted means more money flowing into city coffers.

On the other hand, some cities trying to woo business and industry want to downplay any homeless problem, fearing it will drive investors away.

The head of one San Gabriel Valley homeless advocacy group, who didn’t want to be named, says that is why her city isn’t planning a recount. “They’re a very poor city, but they don’t want to admit it,” she said. “They want to present themselves as a city on the move, economically viable.”

The San Gabriel Valley city with the highest number of counted homeless is El Monte, with 439. Local officials say that figure is about right, and that they were able to accurately count their homeless because they have coordinated a large number of private and government-funded programs, establishing a clearinghouse in the El Monte/South El Monte Emergency Services Assn.

Homeless experts say that while El Monte may show up as having the highest homeless population, that is only because so many other cities undercounted theirs.

Pasadena is the only local city that has recounted its homeless. The 1990 census found 234 homeless, but the recount on Sept. 23 found hundreds more, according to Joe Colletti, co-chairman of Pasadena’s Housing and Homeless Network.

Though the city isn’t releasing final figures until later this month, officials say this count is more accurate because they hired street people to lead surveyors to abandoned buildings and freeway underpasses where homeless people sleep.

Civic leaders and charity groups say the homeless tend to flock to areas where there are shelters. In the San Gabriel Valley, that means either Pomona or Pasadena. No other valley city operates shelters, although most provide vouchers enabling those in dire need to spend several nights at an inexpensive motel.

But all too often, there isn’t much assistance beyond that. Few cities or shelters offer transitional housing, job referral services, educational training or substance abuse programs. That means many homeless people are back on the street within weeks or months, battling an ever-downward cycle of despair and poverty.

“There’s no way they can maintain; they may keep a roof over their heads for awhile but then something happens,” said Gloria M. Kunkel, executive director of Union Station, a Pasadena shelter that offers limited programs to get the homeless back on their feet.

But Kunkel says Union Station’s pilot program offering transitional housing can only serve about six people, a tiny portion of what is needed. “I don’t think anybody has an idea that the situation is as bad as it is, and it’s growing as people fall out of housing because they can’t afford the rents or have lost jobs. We have a lot of families on the street, moving from shelter to shelter.”

Ten years ago, say Kunkel and others, the majority of homeless were single, middle-aged men. Today, they see increasing numbers of families and are especially worried about homeless children, who are uprooted and sometimes miss months of school, in addition to the emotional trauma they endure.

Consider Rozina Calloway, 26, who sat on a bench at Union Station recently and recounted her story. Her 10-year-old daughter slumbered next to her in the sun while her 9-year-old son played nearby. In her lap, Calloway held her 1-year-old twins.

Calloway said her older children have already missed about five weeks of school because the family has been forced to stay with friends and in shelters throughout Los Angeles County. Her husband left her, she lost her job due to complications from her last pregnancy, and she ran out of friends to stay with.

At Union Station, Calloway practiced her typing skills in the shelter office and has filled out several job applications, including one at a hospital. She said she wants to find a job, save some money, move into an apartment.

“It’s rough being out here, and people don’t care; they feel you’re in this situation because you did something wrong,” Calloway said. “I needed Pampers a few days ago, so I asked some women coming out of a church for $1 or $2. But they didn’t want to be bothered.”

Across from Calloway sat Steve Jensen, 43. The former electronics technician has been homeless since 1989, when he lost his aerospace job, his wife and his home in Palmdale. He doesn’t drink or smoke. He was not counted in the 1990 census.

For the past three years, Jensen has lived on the streets and occasionally in shelters. He says there are many out there like him, but that the “few who are stealing and robbing make it look bad for the rest of us.”

Although he despairs of finding a job, Jensen earned $7 an hour the evening of Sept. 23 when he was one of 62 homeless people who helped recount Pasadena’s homeless.

Soon it will be time for Jensen to move to another shelter; Union Station allows only 60-day stays.

In West Covina, city officials acknowledge that if they built a homeless shelter tomorrow, it would fill up immediately.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” said Gus Salazar, West Covina’s director of human services. “We can say, ‘We don’t have a problem so why should we build one?’ But they say, ‘Well, you don’t have a shelter so you don’t have a problem.’ ”

Salazar conceded there are some homeless in his city of 96,000, although they are hard to spot, sitting in parks all day or sleeping along the freeway at night. But he believes most are just passing through on their way to cities that have shelters or better aid programs.

West Covina houses about two homeless people a month in motels, using vouchers paid for by the Salvation Army and United Way. But three months ago, that money ran out. Now the city can provide only food, not shelter. “It hurts, especially when there’s a family involved,” Salazar said.

Colletti, who also is director of Lutheran Social Services for the San Gabriel Valley, said it is ludicrous that the census counters found only three homeless in Baldwin Park, one in La Puente and none in West Covina.

More than 100 people a night flock to the cold weather shelter his group operates in rotating locations in the East San Gabriel Valley, he said. “It’s a tough thing for people to admit, that there are homeless in their city.

In Pomona, Pat Irish, executive director of the Pomona Valley Council of Churches, runs a shelter that can serve about 24 people each night. “We probably turn 10 families away a day,” she said. “In our area, a lot of our homeless are families.”

The 1990 census found 217 homeless people in Pomona, but Irish and others believe that figure is low.

“More than likely, significant numbers were unable to be accounted for,” said Margo Wheeler, Pomona’s director of community development. “It certainly is a very difficult number to come up with.

Wheeler said there are no plans for a recount. Pomona wants to present a positive image, she said, adding that the city does its share by funding three homeless facilities, the Salvation Army and some local churches. Additionally, there is a service that refers homeless people to shelters.

One who has taken advantage of the city’s shelters is Barbara Campbell, 50, a former preschool teacher from San Bernardino. She became homeless when her disability insurance ran out and she wasn’t able to pay the rent.

“Anyone can become homeless,” Campbell said. “It can happen to you in two or three months.”

While she tries to put her life back together in the shelter, Campbell has applied for a substitute teaching position in the Pomona Unified School District. She volunteers one day a week teaching preschool at Pomona’s First Christian Church.

“People who never thought they would be homeless are having that experience,” Campbell said. “I’m a professional teacher, and I would say to anyone, ‘You just don’t know.’ ”

Street Life

A count of the homeless in the San Gabriel Valley.

NO. IN NO. IN CITY SHELTERS STREETS Alhambra 53 1 Altadena 0 56 Arcadia 0 2 Baldwin Park 0 3 Covina 50 0 El Monte 287 152 Industry 0 6 La Puente 0 1 Pasadena 220 14 Pomona 211 6 Rosemead 0 3 South El Monte 0 81

The Census found no homeless in the following San Gabriel Valley cities and unincorporated county areas: Azusa, Bradbury, Claremont, Diamond Bar, Duarte, Glendora, Hacienda Heights, Irwindale, La Verne, Monrovia, Monterey Park, Rowland Heights, San Dimas, San Gabriel, San Marino, Sierra Madre, South Pasadena, South San Gabriel, Temple City, Valinda, Walnut and West Covina.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Compiled by Richard O’Reilly, director of computer analysis, and Maureen Lyons, statistical analyst, of The Times.