Winter shelter could be out

CITY HALL — Burbank officials Thursday warned that the winter homeless shelter near Bob Hope Airport that serves an average 107 transients each night may be rejected next year unless swift efforts were made to address neighborhood complaints.

The warning came two weeks after the Burbank City Council grilled representatives of the shelter’s operator, the Los Angeles Union Rescue Mission, on a number of apparent mishaps and neighborhood nuisances, including loitering and public urination, that were supposed to have been avoided with the “bus in, bus out” approach.

Speaking to the Glendale Homeless Coalition on Thursday, Burbank Deputy City Manager Joy Forbes said operators would need to take steps to head off neighborhood complaints and ensure promises of minimal impact to the city were fulfilled in order to avoid a “huge grass-roots effort” against the shelter.

“Certain promises were made, and they don’t feel they’re being met,” Forbes said.

A key selling point for the winter shelter at the city’s National Guard Armory — especially for nearby residents — was the promise that no walk-ins would be accepted. Clients would instead be bused in at night and bused out in the morning from a stop in Glendale to prevent street loitering.

But Union Rescue Mission Vice President Carrie Gatlin told the Burbank City Council Feb. 10 that about 15 people a day were being accepted as walk-ins. This announcement came after shelter operators acknowledged that several registered sex offenders had been arrested at or transported out of the shelter.

Add to that the dynamics of a three-seat City Council election season, and the possibility of the winter shelter program faltering in Burbank was becoming more of a probability, Forbes warned.

“We’re on the precipice of Burbank not being able to host the shelter,” she said.

EIMAGO Inc. representatives, who operate the winter shelter the Burbank National Guard Armory on behalf of the Union Rescue Mission, said at the meeting that they were in the process of responding to the complaints with revised procedures and were open to input.

Program Manager Monica Gillon acknowledged that the operators should have been more upfront with the community with some of the unplanned problems that can arise from a winter shelter, but agreed that talks among the various stakeholders should occur before their contract is up mid-March.