Homeless People

Providing “temporary subsidized housing” for the homeless is a worthy project (“ Homeless shelter program to close on positive note ,” March 13). It's good that some, particularly families, are now off the streets. However, a cold weather shelter's principal purpose is to provide shelter in the cold weather for the homeless. What about the 100 who had shelter the prior year but had to go elsewhere for that resource this winter? We can be thankful we had a mild winter.

Steven Elliott credits the friends he meets for making life on the streets and in homeless shelters bearable. “You get to meet everybody,” he said. “We become a family.” One of Elliott’s friends who he would commonly see at shelters and free meals died this year. So on Monday evening, he held a candle in his memory. Elliott was one of dozens of people gathered outside the Glendale National Guard Armory on Colorado Street clutching candles to honor the 417 homeless people, including three from the Glendale area, who have died in the last year.

BURBANK — The city’s winter homeless shelter opened Monday, providing cots, showers and hot meals to 31 people on its first night of operation at the Burbank National Guard Armory. Last year, the shelter drew only about 15 people on its first night and almost 150 on its most crowded evening before it closed in mid-March, said Andy Bales, director of the Los Angeles Union Rescue Mission, which runs the program. “Once the word gets out and the weather gets a little worse, we’ll have more people coming in,” Burbank Vice Mayor Gary Bric said.

Three weeks after the Burbank-Glendale homeless winter shelter opened with less than one-third of its 50 beds filled, the program has yet to reach capacity, prompting officials to reevaluate some rules to make it easier to access. The three-month program that began Dec. 15 at Glendale's National Guard Armory is limited to 50 people with ties to Glendale or Burbank who are pre-selected by local social service groups. In the past, the armory housed 150 homeless people as part of a “come one, come all” regional winter shelter sponsored by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

Public officials and advocates for homeless people said Friday that they believe they can eliminate homelessness among military veterans in Glendale in the next 12 months. The comments came at a public forum during which officials released data collected as part of a three-day homeless census conducted earlier this week. The outreach effort was executed under the umbrella of the national 100,000 Homes Campaign, launched by New York City-based organization Common Ground and dedicated to moving 100,000 chronically homeless individuals into permanent housing.

GLENDALE — Community organizers are looking for more volunteers to help homeless people use services to be offered by the 25 groups participating in Thursday’s Homeless Connect Day 2008. The event, which will run from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Glendale armory, will give homeless people access to services related to housing, personal health and hygiene, veterans, mental health, employment assistance, child care, legal counseling and more, organizers said. “We’re trying to connect them to programs so that they’re able to get services so that they’re able to work towards becoming self-sufficient and work towards getting help,” said Ivet Samvelyan, the city’s homeless coordinator.

Claudia Peschiutta LOS ANGELES -- While many celebrated Armenian Christmas by sharing a meal with family members, others did so by providing a meal for homeless people. The Los Angeles Chapter of Homenetmen, an international athletic and scouting organization, sponsored a meal for about 350 homeless people at the Los Angeles Mission on Thursday. "Armenians in general, because of the Genocide, understand the meaning of homelessness," said Steve Artinian, chairman of the Los Angeles chapter, referring to the Armenian Genocide that began in 1915.

Due to careful and intensive case management, Glendale officials and nonprofit agencies involved in homeless work exceeded their 2010 goals for getting transients into housing and jobs - an accomplishment they hope to repeat next year. “It came from a lot of hard work,” Ivet Samvelyan, Glendale's homeless services coordinator, said at a Homeless Coalition meeting Thursday. The coalition directs Glendale's Continuum of Care program, which works with local homeless using competitively-awarded federal grants.

Sean Sauceda moved quickly through dry brush near a Pasadena freeway off ramp before dawn Tuesday morning, looking for the homeless people most at risk of dying on city streets. He stopped to peer inside a cluster of bushes. “People hollow them out by breaking the branches inside,” Sauceda said as he snapped a branch. “It's natural shelter. It's large enough where you can fit a dome tent inside of it. I've done it.” Sauceda, 41, a Fresno-area native, lived on the streets of Los Angeles for 13 years.

Providing “temporary subsidized housing” for the homeless is a worthy project (“ Homeless shelter program to close on positive note ,” March 13). It's good that some, particularly families, are now off the streets. However, a cold weather shelter's principal purpose is to provide shelter in the cold weather for the homeless. What about the 100 who had shelter the prior year but had to go elsewhere for that resource this winter? We can be thankful we had a mild winter.

In the past, race has been one of the biggest issues when it came to fair housing impediments in Glendale, but now people with disabilities and large families face greater discrimination, according to a recent report to the city's Housing Authority. The shift follows cultural changes that came with significant growth in Glendale's foreign-born population, especially Armenian, and a protracted recession that turned the housing market upside-down. It's also in line with national trends, said Veronica Tam, a consultant who created the Fair Housing Impediment Analysis.

Ken Lasch went from living in his car for nearly three years to what he calls No. 10 Downing Street, a nod to the British Prime Minister's 100-room mansion. The 83-year-old's new apartment on Glendale Avenue is a far cry from one of the most famous buildings in the United Kingdom, but for the self-proclaimed optimist, the small abode, which is filled with donated furniture, has turned his life around. “I have been helped tremendously with a place to live, including the furniture,” Lasch said at a homeless oversight committee meeting Thursday at City Hall.

Three weeks after the Burbank-Glendale homeless winter shelter opened with less than one-third of its 50 beds filled, the program has yet to reach capacity, prompting officials to reevaluate some rules to make it easier to access. The three-month program that began Dec. 15 at Glendale's National Guard Armory is limited to 50 people with ties to Glendale or Burbank who are pre-selected by local social service groups. In the past, the armory housed 150 homeless people as part of a “come one, come all” regional winter shelter sponsored by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

Due to careful and intensive case management, Glendale officials and nonprofit agencies involved in homeless work exceeded their 2010 goals for getting transients into housing and jobs - an accomplishment they hope to repeat next year. “It came from a lot of hard work,” Ivet Samvelyan, Glendale's homeless services coordinator, said at a Homeless Coalition meeting Thursday. The coalition directs Glendale's Continuum of Care program, which works with local homeless using competitively-awarded federal grants.

Armed with flashlights and clipboards, dozens of volunteers fanned out before dawn Monday to find the most vulnerable people living on the streets of North Hollywood and Sun Valley. The effort organized by the San Fernando Valley Homeless Coalition, a network of service providers, aims to help at least 75 people into stable housing and find them the services they need to stay off the streets. North Hollywood and Sun Valley are among more than 90 communities nationwide to join the 100,000 Homes campaign , an effort to house 100,000 homeless people by 2013.  L.A. NOW

Sean Sauceda moved quickly through dry brush near a Pasadena freeway off ramp before dawn Tuesday morning, looking for the homeless people most at risk of dying on city streets. He stopped to peer inside a cluster of bushes. “People hollow them out by breaking the branches inside,” Sauceda said as he snapped a branch. “It's natural shelter. It's large enough where you can fit a dome tent inside of it. I've done it.” Sauceda, 41, a Fresno-area native, lived on the streets of Los Angeles for 13 years.

Public officials and advocates for homeless people said Friday that they believe they can eliminate homelessness among military veterans in Glendale in the next 12 months. The comments came at a public forum during which officials released data collected as part of a three-day homeless census conducted earlier this week. The outreach effort was executed under the umbrella of the national 100,000 Homes Campaign, launched by New York City-based organization Common Ground and dedicated to moving 100,000 chronically homeless individuals into permanent housing.

GLENDALE — Around noon on Wednesday, Glendale homeless services coordinator Ivet Samvelyan scanned a Vons parking lot for potential transients before spotting a man with a large backpack standing at a nearby bus stop. Clutching a clipboard, she approached him and asked if he was without a permanent place to stay. The man, who said he had been on and off the streets for several years, was at first hesitant to take part in the confidential survey with questions ranging from his birthday to whether he suffered from a drug or alcohol problem.

GLENDALE — The homeless shelter at the Glendale National Guard Armory will be open around the clock through Thursday after state officials on Monday approved 24-hour access as heavy rainfall continued to batter the region. They left open the possibility of extending the expanded access if the weather did not improve as expected. But local service providers for the homeless criticized the state's response as too slow since it came on the third day of steady rain. "I'm glad they are going to stay open, but I'm looking out my window at people walking in the cold rain right now who could have had shelter," said Andy Bales, chief executive of the Union Rescue Mission.