Earthquake: The Long Road Back : Thousands Remain Homeless : Housing: Last of the giant tent cities is dismantled. Many quake victims in indoor shelters are urged to search for permanent homes.

Workers finished dismantling the last of the giant tent cities erected after the earthquake on Thursday, yet thousands of quake victims remained homeless at dozens of indoor shelters where relief agencies gave a last push to find permanent homes for them.

“We’re trying to bring the population down to zero,” said Ella Nevarez, a Salvation Army caseworker called in from Orange County to speed the process at a Canoga Park shelter. “We’re letting them know they need to make a decision . . . that this is not a healthy situation. Everyone needs to move beyond the earthquake now.”

Meanwhile, many in the shelters who had been bused over from several of the National Guard-run tent cities--the last of which was closed Wednesday, its residents transferred to indoor shelters--still did not have homes to return to.

“They seem in a hurry to kick people out,” said one woman, as she cuddled her two young children at a Salvation Army shelter set up in the Canoga Park High School gymnasium.

But, like the several thousand other quake victims spread out across the San Fernando Valley, the woman, who declined to give her name, has nowhere else to go. “My apartment is condemned. I hope they don’t try to make me leave because we have nowhere else to go.”

From a post-quake high of nearly 20,000 people sleeping in parks and on cots and hard floors at recreation centers, churches, senior centers, Boys & Girls Clubs and other buildings that doubled as shelters, the number of earthquake refugees has dwindled to about 4,000, relief agencies officials said Thursday.

“We are trying to get people out of the shelters as quickly as possible by nudging them into service centers where we can give them rental vouchers, counseling and whatever else they need,” said Felix Perez, a spokesman for the Red Cross. “It’s important that we get people out of the tent cities and shelters quickly so people don’t get used to living that way.”

The strategy appears to be working: while a high of 10,726 people slept at 35 Red Cross shelters around the city on Jan. 24, just 3,724 people stayed at 29 similar shelters Wednesday night. Hundreds more were still staying at private shelters run by the Salvation Army and other organizations.

In all, about 255,728 people have registered for disaster relief--ranging from rent vouchers to home-repair loans--handed out by the Federal Emergency Management Agency since the quake. Despite aid however, many left homeless by the quake continue to face problems.

Vineetha de Silva, 43, for example, and her husband, Anslem, and 19-year-old son, Asitha Niroshar, have qualified for a HUD housing voucher, but continue to live in a circus tent set up by Church on the Way on a field near its Van Nuys sanctuary.

“We went to an apartment yesterday and the manager said ‘Sorry we are not accepting FEMA vouchers,’ ” de Silva said. “The main thing is that we have to find a home. We are not rich people.”

And time is running out for the family. Phil Pump, director of volunteer ministries, said the church will close its tent city next week. Only 50 of the 70 people living there will be guaranteed places at a Red Cross shelter at Van Nuys High School, he said.

“A lot of them don’t want to look (for another place to live) just yet,” Pump said. “They are getting comfortable here.”

At the shelter at Canoga Park High School, officials also are gearing up to close down.

“This is our third set of people,” said Lt. Mary Doss at the Salvation Army’s shelter in the Canoga Park High School gym. “Most of the people who had been here earlier have found places.

“The people here now are waiting for a house to be painted or repaired or came from the parks. This is sort of the last phase.”

That Salvation Army shelter is currently providing lodging to 500 people in the gym, down from 1,600 at the peak.

An additional problem faced by the shelters is determining which people were homeless even before the quake, and deciding what to do about them. Those previously homeless do not qualify for federal and other disaster assistance.

On Thursday, a crew of red-jacketed Salvation Army volunteers moved inside the Canoga Park High gym, trying to separate earthquake victims from other homeless people.

“Some people are definitely trying to take advantage of the situation, but we’ll root them out,” a volunteer said.

And at the Winnetka Recreation Center’s gigantic tent city that once was home to more than a thousand people, all that was left Thursday were a few workers loading cots onto trucks.

Many of the people that had been staying there “had homes they could go back to but were too afraid to,” said Lt. Col. Pat Antosh, a National Guard spokeswoman. “But when it got rainy and cold, the number of people (at tent cities) went down dramatically.”

Meanwhile, Ron Bott was giving the newly exposed ground the once-over with a metal detector. When asked what treasures he had found, he said, “Nickels, dimes, but mostly pennies. . . . I’ve only gotten about $1,” which he said is less than the $3 or $4 he usually collects while sweeping area parks with his dog.

“We come to this park pretty often, mostly (people) drop jewelry and things like that. But there’s nothing like that today . . . just some United Way pins.”