LAKE VIEW TERRACE : Program Unites Homeless and Pets

Until a year ago, Diane lived out of her old Pinto in Hansen Dam in Pacoima. She had the option of staying in a shelter but refused to because she was not allowed to bring her best friend with her.

Her best friend? A very friendly and fuzzy springer spaniel named Alexis, who had been abandoned at the dam.

But today, Diane, who didn’t give her last name, and Alexis share a home with a Lake View Terrace family from whom Diane rents a room, thanks to the Homeless With Pets program at the Better Valley Services in North Hollywood. The program, started 2 1/2 years ago without any funding, places homeless people with pets in either temporary housing or finds them an apartment where the landlord accepts pets and is willing to skip the security deposit.

According to Better Valley Services manager Irene Gizzi, who found Diane and her dog their current home, one out of five homeless people has at least one pet.

So far, the Better Valley Services has found housing for about 100 pet-owning homeless people. Gizzi said her organization is trying to raise funds so it can set up a voucher system for the inseparable twosomes who come to her for help. “Psychologically, you need something to go on with your life,” said Gizzi, explaining why homeless people adopt pets. “You become responsible for the pet. It becomes part of your life, and without it, you might as well stay on the street.”

Additionally, Gizzi said it is psychologically detrimental for a homeless person to be forced to give up a pet.

Diane said Alexis is what kept her sane while she was homeless. “She kept me nice and warm in the winter or when it was raining,” Diane said.

Often feeling unsafe at night, Diane said she “slept with a baseball bat in one arm and Alexis in the other.”

“It’s very common to see a woman with a dog on a rope and cat in her shopping cart,” said Gizzi, who has found that many homeless women and older men will adopt pets to prevent being attacked.

Before she met her canine friend, Diane said she spent much of her time by herself, away from the other homeless people at the dam. “They wanted to do drugs, and I would tell them, ‘Don’t do that around me,’ ” Diane said. “But they’d get offended.”

Diane said that feeding Alexis was not a problem because the volunteers at the food centers would give the dog the extra food. “Everybody took to her,” Diane said. “She would ‘sit pretty’ and give these sad puppy eyes, and they’d feed her. ‘Now, she’s a spoiled brat,” added Diane, who receives disability for a skin condition and is doing bookkeeping and housecleaning to pay her share of the utilities and rent.