Homeless shelter up in the air

CITY HALL — Faced with the inability to use the city’s National Guard Armory and a tepid response from local churches that have been asked to provide space for a rotating winter homeless shelter, county officials and the Glendale Homeless Coalition agreed Thursday to explore Burbank’s armory as a last-ditch alternative.

The possibility of officials stitching together a last-minute agreement to operate a winter homeless shelter in Glendale this season is at an all-time low, leaving the area’s homeless likely without local respite from the cold for the first time in more than 10 years.

The winter shelter last year took in an average of 120 to 150 transients every night during its operation between Dec. 1 and March 15, said David Earle, who ran the shelter on behalf of the Volunteers of America Greater Los Angeles.

This year, the organization decided not to return, and officials for the Glendale YMCA, Salvation Army and PATH Achieve — among the city’s largest homeless service providers — said this fall they could not withstand the stress of extending their resources to operate the shelter, even if it is county-funded.

Without the shelter, administrators say their facilities will not be able to accommodate the transient population.

There are 296 transients in Glendale on any given day, according to the city’s latest count in January. Of those, 79 are considered chronically homeless — who are the most visible on the street and typically suffer from physical, mental and substance abuse disabilities, according to city reports.

They are also most vulnerable to hypothermia and other weather-related health issues, advocates for the homeless say.

Just two weeks away from the start of the shelter season, it was clear at the meeting Thursday that frustration over a lack of leadership from county homeless officials in finding a solution was building.

“I’m really kind of disgusted that it’s two weeks beforehand and we’re still scrambling,” said Glendale Salvation Army Capt. Jim Sloan. “It seems to me this should have been solved several months ago, not on Nov. 15.”