Villaraigosa Pledges Aid, but Voices Concerns

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Friday that city officials were evaluating whether Los Angeles had shelters to house people evacuated from the Gulf Coast, and he signed an order allowing up to 1,000 city workers to travel to the area as disaster volunteers.

The mayor echoed comments by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who said the state would continue to help hurricane victims and urged Californians to help by donating money, volunteering or giving blood.

Villaraigosa and the city’s general managers met during the afternoon to discuss how the city could assist those in the storm-devastated area, including the possibility of providing shelter to people who lost their homes.

“The city of Los Angeles stands ready to do everything it can to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina,” the mayor said in a hastily arranged news conference.

Mayors across the nation have been trying to find ways their cities can help.

Ideas being weighed by Los Angeles include sending structural engineers to the Gulf Coast and sending animal-control officers to help people find lost pets.

While Houston and other cities have taken in tens of thousands of refugees, Los Angeles officials were divided over the role the city should play in housing them, given that its 10,000 homeless shelter beds are nearly full most nights.

“We’re in the process of looking at what housing we may have. As we all know, it’s very limited,” Villaraigosa said. “In the case of Houston, you can very quickly see your resources can be overcome.”

Los Angeles drew thousands of black migrants from the Deep South in the early 20th century, and many families in the area have ties to the Gulf Coast. Some may seek to move their relatives.

Villaraigosa met with 11 African American ministers and offered assistance to churches and their congregants who take in families from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. It is believed by ministers of those churches that at least 40% of the members of those congregations have relatives in the area affected by the hurricane.

Council members Jan Perry and Bernard C. Parks attended the meeting and cautioned that the city needed to prepare for the arrival of displaced people but also to be cautious about what help it promises.

“I think people are going to show up, whether they are invited or not, and the city is going to have to adjust,” Parks said. “We have to start thinking about it.” Perry worried that the city’s stretched homeless services could be overwhelmed.

“We would not be able to accommodate a giant influx,” she said. “We have 90,000 people that are homeless in L.A. County, and we’re not doing a comprehensive job of taking care of them now.”

Both said that the best way for people to help was to donate to organizations that can directly help victims.

Melvin Wade, president of the National Missionary Baptist Convention of America, said his organization was planning to have church members take in storm victims.

Villaraigosa said the head of the city’s Department of Airports had begun talking to airlines serving Los Angeles International about providing transportation for families moving to Southern California.

The governor noted that Californians have offered to bring in high school students from the hurricane-stricken region and to accommodate some evacuees.

“The people of our state have already begun to show their compassion and generosity,” Schwarzenegger told reporters.

Villaraigosa’s executive order allows the city to continue to pay the salaries of up to 1,000 city employees if they volunteer to work for the Red Cross.

The Los Angeles Fire Department has sent 94 members of its swift-water rescue team, search-and-rescue task force and support staff to the Gulf Coast for nine days.

Villaraigosa said he asked Fire Chief William Bamattre to determine if another search team could be sent when the first one returned.

Over the last three days, Los Angeles Fire Department employees have rescued more than 500 people, Villaraigosa said.

He said that 30 LAPD officers are on standby to depart, if requested by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke on Friday suggested setting up collection sites for donations at libraries and called for a task force to study how to help storm victims who move to Los Angeles.

The task force would include mental health, foster care, housing and other county officials and would consult with federal and state emergency management agencies.

Times staff writers Jack Leonard and Ann M. Simmons contributed to this report.