Sheltering Westside’s Homeless: From Bad To Worse

Looks like the National Guard may be forcing the closure of the Winter Shelter program in West Los Angeles.

Every year, emergency shelter beds throughout the County are set up during three months of winter—it is called the Winter Shelter program. On the Westside of Los Angeles County, these shelters have been developed in the National Guard’s armories. One in West Los Angeles and the other in Culver City.

Here’s what a local Santa Monica paper says:

The Army Reserve-owned property -- an old armory located near the southeast corner of Federal Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard -- would not be sold. Instead it would be swapped for land elsewhere to the highest bidder in a June internet auction, raising concern among many officials that the site will be developed, for profit, with little or no public input.

This basically means that shelter for 150 homeless people in West Los Angeles will be eliminated.

And when it rains, it pours… last Tuesday, Culver City Councilmember Carol Gross announced at the Westside Council of Government’s homeless sub-committee that the lease on the Culver City armory may not be renewed in 2007.

That means an additional 150-bed Winter Shelter could be closed. 300 beds total!

Councilmember Gross said it is up to the Culver City Council, whether they want to renew the lease. She said it is not a done deal.

Sadly, when we already know there is a tragic gap between the number of homeless people on the streets of Los Angeles County and the number of shelter beds, we should not be reducing existing shelter beds, we should be increasing them.