WATTS : Shelter Faces Its Own Homelessness
When Sarah Smith decided to open a homeless shelter, she knew some hard times lay ahead. And now, nearly a year after she began offering a respite for families, she is battling to keep it open.
Sitting in her small office, Smith said she is unsure how to begin to confront the problems that threaten the Family Service Center at 250 E. 120th St.
“I just told my daughter the other day I feel like a homeless shelter without a home,” said Smith, a former nurse who operates the shelter and helps families find permanent housing. The shelter has four paid employees who are assisted in their duties by residents.
Smith’s trouble began in March, shortly after she assumed the lease for the shelter, the site of a former hospital and adult day-care center. Smith said most of the $22,000 in unpaid utility bills the shelter faces belong to the owner of the adult day-care center that shared part of the building until October.
The Department of Water and Power would not discuss the case, but Odell Mathieu, a field collector for the department, said the problem has not been resolved.
Smith said she’s received little help from the city in trying resolve to the matter: “I’m pretty upset with (the city) because it’s as if they don’t even care. I’m doing work for the community and they are supposed to support people. There aren’t any other shelters in this area that will house men and their children.”
Smith asked Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr.’s office in April for information on funding sources and help in sorting out the utility bills, but has not received any response since her initial meeting with an aide to the 15th District councilman. She also said she received no reply to a letter asking for Svorinich’s endorsement from the councilman for an August fund-raiser for the shelter.
“Whatever she has asked us for we have given her guidance on,” said Tom Kruesopon, a Svorinich spokesman. “We were just contacted a little while ago and we’re trying to respond to her as quickly as possible.”
However, Kruesopon acknowledged no response was sent out on Smith’s request for an endorsement.
Smith was recently served with an eviction notice for falling behind on the $1,500-a-month rent and faces a May 18 court date.
The building’s owner did not respond to telephone calls.
Kruesopon said that Smith’s problem is primarily a tenant-landlord issue.
Smith is trying to find alternative quarters for the 22 families housed at the shelter if the center should close.
While some can afford to pay $300 a month for a two-person family and may find shelter elsewhere, Smith said few homeless shelters take families. Many, she said, will be unable to afford any shelter because they receive no government assistance.
“I’m going to keep working at raising money and I’m even looking at other buildings, but that’s why we need support,” said Smith.
Fern Smith, a social worker with Para Los Ninos, a Downtown family support center, said family shelters are scarce in Watts and homeless families are often forced to break up. “It’s almost impossible to find shelters and in fact most are always full in South-Central,” she said.
