Southland Shelters Expect Space Crunch Again This Winter

With rain forecast this weekend and the chill of winter already beginning to bite, Southern California’s cold weather shelters are preparing for a crush this season of homeless people seeking refuge from the elements.

To prepare shelters to open next week, workers are installing toilets, showers, carpeting and other amenities to transform warehouses and National Guard armories into refuges for large numbers of homeless men and women.

One facility, the Lancaster Community Shelter at 44611 Yucca Ave., opened Nov. 1 and the number of homeless coming in from the cold has grown steadily, said Dawn Venegas, a resident attendant there.

“Right now we have 17 men and five women,” Venegas said Friday. “Our capacity is 45, and we’ll fill every bed. A lot of the time we’re turning people away, turning families away.”

This year, 19 cold-weather shelters are expected to operate in Los Angeles County, providing about 2,100 beds.

From Nov. 18 to Dec. 15, most shelters are opened when the National Weather Service forecasts at least a 50% chance of rain or when the temperature is expected to drop below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Thereafter, the shelters are open continuously until Feb. 28. In March, the availability of most shelters is again dependent on weather.

In the San Fernando Valley, the Sylmar Armory Shelter at 12860 Arroyo St. will open Nov. 18.

However, a Glendale shelter is not expected to open until early December in a temporary building at 540 W. Chevy Drive. The Glendale City Council on Tuesday granted a waiver of city codes to allow erection of the structure. And a proposed 3,240-square-foot cold-weather shelter in the Santa Clarita Valley was approved this week by the Canyon Country planning commission and will be considered by the Santa Clarita City Council in December.

In Orange County, the county’s overnight emergency shelter program does not begin until December. As a result, the recent chilly nights and blustery winds have had existing homeless shelters bulging.

“I’m sure by 6 p.m. [Friday] everything will be at capacity here,” said Jim Palmer, director of the Orange County Rescue Mission. “Traditionally, the first week of a cold snap, this is always the case. Lots of people and not enough beds.”

The mission’s 150 beds at two facilities are expected to be full over the weekend, Palmer said, and there aren’t enough homeless shelters “to handle everyone who needs a bed.”

Many social service providers said that because of welfare policies restricting general relief benefits to single men and women, more homeless people will need shelter this year.

“In general, the demand will be very high this winter as it has been for more than a decade,” said Bob Erlenbusch, executive director of the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness.

He said that for most of the year there are between 55,000 and 85,000 homeless people in Los Angeles with only 13,000 shelter beds. The opening of the cold-weather program will add 2,000 beds.

Many homeless people depend on the winter shelters as their only sanctuary. A study of the cold-weather program by the Los Angeles-based Shelter Partnership last year found that the shelters are nearly always filled.

Nearly half of the 883 people surveyed at nine Los Angeles shelters reported they had used them for at least two previous winters.

Shelter Partnership Executive Director Ruth Schwartz said that trend will continue. Her organization offers technical assistance, research and resources to providers of services for the homeless. The group is gearing up to hand out soap, toilet paper and other provisions next week to Los Angeles County agencies operating cold-weather shelters.

In a 21,000-square-foot warehouse on Union Pacific Avenue in Los Angeles, workers are busy installing toilets and showers to accommodate 200 homeless people during the winter.

Brenda Wilson, director of the New Image Emergency Shelter program, which will operate the facility, said she is anticipating heavy use of services there.

The group is also awaiting the go-ahead from City Councilman Rudy Svorinich to open another winter shelter in Harbor City to serve the South Bay.

“What sets the way for me is the rain we’ve already had, and there is more predicted next week,” she said. “From Nov. 18 to Dec. 15, we normally might be open five or six days in that period, but based on rain, this year looks like it may be more.”

Wilson said the perception of winter shelters as cavernous cot-filled spaces lacking any services is outdated. The Union Pacific facility, for example, will be carpeted and have pictures on the walls, and will have a room for watching television and for studying.

New Image also provides social workers and case managers to help shelter users find jobs, permanent housing, drug rehabilitation and other services.

Times staff writers Carol Chambers in the San Fernando Valley and David Reyes in Orange County contributed to this story.