Residents Want Men’s Shelter Out of Their Neighborhood

How would Mother Teresa resolve this conflict?

For a decade, the Missionaries of Charity Brothers--a Roman Catholic order she founded in India--has provided food, a shower and confession to homeless young men at a historic mansion in Los Angeles’ Westlake district.

But now many residents in the neighborhood near downtown want the Brothers to end their “Nuestro Hogar”--Our Home-- program that serves about 80 homeless people Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the 97-year-old Spanish Revival house.

Members of a neighborhood residents association and others say the Brothers’ use of the house violates the street’s residential zoning designation and that the homeless men the service attracts make the neighborhood unsafe.

Their complaints reached city zoning officials, who determined a year ago that Nuestro Hogar violated codes.

In response, the Brothers applied for a conditional-use permit and zoning variance that would allow them to continue their work. A zoning administrator denied that request earlier this summer. The Brothers’ appeal will be heard during a Central Area Planning Commission hearing today. “If Mother Teresa was here, she’s the one they would be talking to,” Brother Joseph McLachlan said of the Nobel Peace Prize winner who visited the house before her death in 1997. “When she was alive people praised our work.”

Opponents, however, say, this is not the place to do that work.

Resident Claims It Harms Neighborhood

“What the Brothers are doing next door sounds like a good thing on paper,” neighbor Ines Enriquez wrote to zoning officials. “But the reality is very harmful to a residential neighborhood.”

The Brothers’ well-maintained house--at 1345 Alvarado Terrace--is a city and federally designated landmark, as are other historic houses on that block, a lovely enclave that feels like a step back in time from the distinctly urban setting that surrounds it.

The house was built about 1904 by Pomeroy Powers--a real estate developer who also was the Los Angeles City Council president from 1900 to 1904. An impressive gray and white two-story structure with hardwood floors and original light fixtures, the house is set back from the street by a grand staircase and a big lawn.

The Brothers began Nuestro Hogar in the 1980s at a nearby house. In 1992, they were forced to sell that property to make way for school facilities and came to Alvarado Terrace.

It was just after the riots and properties had burned a few blocks away, McLachlan said, adding that not many people were willing to move there.

The Brothers were not aware, he said, that their use of the house would violate the zoning code. So they operated the program for young men, many of them immigrants without family in the country.

The Brothers, who don’t live in the historic mansion, also own three other homes in the area that house them and a handful of mentally ill and disabled people.

The area is also home to an energetic residents association: the Coalition to Improve Quality of Life in Rampart.

Focusing on reducing crime and enforcing zoning codes, the coalition was the model for Operation Healthy Neighborhoods, which former Mayor Richard Riordan championed for other parts of the city, said Mary Ann Hutchison, the Brothers’ other next-door neighbor.

The residents association brought to the first hearing numerous letters and more than 250 signatures on a petition opposing Nuestro Hogar.

“In our plan to clean and rid our community of crime, a homeless shelter has no place in the neighborhood,” wrote Anthony Henderson, president of Alvarado Terrace Home Owners Assn.

Public Drinking, Loitering Alleged

Community residents have complained about, among other things, loitering at a small neighborhood park across from the mansion, drinking in public and pornography stashed in bushes.

“We have really scary-looking people coming to our door,” said Hutchison, adding that, as a homeless advocate herself, she once was appointed to the Venice Homeless Task Force. “We are making our neighborhood better and safe. They are making it blighted.”

McLachlan said the program is not perfect and that the Brothers ask the men, among other things, to stay away from the park.

A police official testified at the last hearing that no crimes have been reported at the house in the last several years. Critics respond, however, that the Brothers never call the police about problems.

During tonight’s hearing, the Brothers will argue that they don’t operate a shelter or soup kitchen, said lawyer Patrick Perry, whose firm is representing the Brothers pro bono.

Attorney Calls House Church, Not Shelter

He insists that the Brothers operate a church and philanthropic institution, both of which are conditionally permitted uses in residential zones.

“We are practicing our faith--and that’s something we should be able to do,” McLachlan said.

On a recent day at the house, about 50 men ate snacks, rested on the veranda and watched TV while waiting to take a shower.

Some frequent visitors said the program has turned their life around.

“I had trouble with alcohol,” said Ismael Contreras, 35. “They gave me help, not only material, but I also received advice that the life I was leading wasn’t what God wanted.”

At the last hearing, a representative from the West Adams Historical Assn.--siding with the Brothers’ opponents--urged the Brothers to sell the house, suggesting that they would make a profit.

But given recent sales of similar houses in the area, the Brothers would lose on their $325,000 investment, said Suzanne Farley, a retired real estate appraiser who believes in the Brothers’ work.

“This house really lends itself to the ministry,” Farley said. “Most importantly, when you come to a home, when you’re poor, and they say, ‘We welcome you,’ it makes a difference.”