Dispute Over Homeless Heats Up With Goldberg’s Support of Center : Opponents fear proposed facility for adults would further tarnish Hollywood. It’s latest fight in a long war.

To Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, a new facility serving homeless adults is just what Hollywood needs. To many of her constituents, Hollywood needs almost anything but.

Goldberg has thrown her support behind a proposed center in central Hollywood that would offer counseling, job training and housing referrals to homeless adults. While the area has a number of organizations catering to street youth, there are few facilities serving adults, who make up an estimated 60% to 70% of the 9,500 homeless in Hollywood.

Many residents say they are outraged by the planned facility, which they fear will overburden the community with social service organizations and attract more homeless people.

“I guess they figure we didn’t have enough homeless people here,” grumbled longtime activist Robert Nudelman, who opposes the new center.

But this is more than an isolated skirmish between a progressive politician and a group of not-in-my-back-yard activists. Residents, city officials and social workers have waged a 30-year war over the fate of Hollywood, a once-proud company town whose fortunes have steadily deteriorated since the collapse of the movie studio system in the 1950s. High crime, blight and slum conditions now afflict entire blocks.

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“If you come down here at night, it’s like [the science-fiction film] ‘Bladerunner’ on Hollywood Boulevard,” said Chris Shabel, another opponent of the proposed center. “It’s dark, dismal and scary.”

Many community activists favor trying to revive the area by emphasizing local history and catering to what remains of the tourist and entertainment industries. Politicians have tried to balance that desire with the need to serve the ever-increasing numbers of homeless, who are often accused of driving away tourists.

The long-simmering passions have bubbled to the surface in the dispute over the homeless center, which is scheduled to open in November in a vacant office building at 1640 N. Gower St.

Goldberg’s office is investigating an incident in which an unidentified person sent out bogus invitations to an Aug. 14 “homeless party” honoring the new center. Although the invitation listed Goldberg as the sponsor, the councilwoman had nothing to do with planning such an event, a spokeswoman said.

The proposed center, operated by the nonprofit West Hollywood Homeless Organization, would initially be funded by a three-year, $533,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Frank Paradise, the organization’s executive director, said the center would also use $333,000 in HUD monies earmarked for case management of homeless people.

In addition, the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles has proposed giving the center $250,000 for building improvements and a job training program. The CRA board is scheduled to consider that proposal some time this month.

The center is just one of many social service programs that Goldberg has supported since taking office. She has been especially active in trying to secure housing for Hollywood’s burgeoning Armenian and Latino immigrant populations.

“We’re 150% behind” the center, said Goldberg chief of staff Sharon Delugach. “What it does is get people off the street” and into counseling and training programs, she added.

Some social workers disagree with the activists’ contention that the new center will cause an influx of homeless.

“People are not flocking to Hollywood because of the social services,” said Mary Rainwater, executive director of the L.A. Free Clinic, a nonprofit group that provides medical care to low-income people. Rather, the social services set up shop “because the [homeless] problem pre-exists in the community.”

Said Paradise, the organization’s executive director: “I think if I owned property in the area and someone came in with a new program that could help reduce homelessness and get people off the streets, I’d applaud it.”

But many residents say they are weary of social service agencies--and their clientele. To them, the proposed center is the last straw.

“The city’s attitude on Hollywood has to change,” Nudelman said. “This is not a dumping ground, a suburb of Skid Row.”