But on Monday, his bed changed when the Los Angeles County-funded winter homeless shelter opened at the Glendale National Guard Armory on Colorado Street.
“Every city should have something like this,” he said. “It’s a warm bed. I’ve been sleeping on the dirt floor.”
Volunteers hurriedly set up tables, drinks and a food buffet, which included beef stroganoff, before the shelter’s doors opened at 5 p.m. Monday for the first time this winter.
The shelter was expecting walk-ins in addition to a bus that brings in transients from the 400 block of North Front Street in Burbank.
Diane Livesey, a two-year shelter volunteer, said she’s met many clients who were homeless as a result of the ongoing recession.
“It’s real hard,” she said. “How can you not feel that compassion for them?”
Sue, a Burbank resident who declined to give her last name, was a case in point. She lost a $50,000-per-year job last year, had a stroke and wasn’t able to get work.
Unable to support herself, she was driven into homelessness. She stayed at the winter shelter in Burbank last year and will use the Glendale armory this winter.
“I don’t think I am your average homeless person,” she said. “But I am homeless because I don’t have any place to stay.”
Nearly 50 beds were set up inside the shelter, which will run through March 15. The shelter, which is run by EIMAGO, a subsidiary of the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles, will accept people from 5 to 9 p.m. daily.
The armory is one of 14 other winter shelter sites throughout Los Angeles County.
As of about 6 p.m., less than a dozen people were lined up outside the gates of the shelter.
“A lot of word of mouth gets around before it fills up to 150 or so,” said Andy Bales, Union Rescue Mission’s chief executive.
