By Hunter Chase, Reporter
Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn proposed turning a vacant county building into a temporary homeless shelter in San Pedro, Hahn announced her plan at the Jan. 14 meeting of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. The proposed shelter will be at 122 W. 8th St. and the building has a large homeless encampment right outside its doors.
During the Jan 14. meeting, Hahn and the four other supervisors were only able to discuss the shelter, but if approved, the county will award the contract for managing the facility to Harbor Interfaith, with the Los Angeles Department of Health Services serving as the contract administrator. The shelter will be open for three years and will have 40 beds, as well as round- the-clock security, three meals a day and snacks. The shelter will also have wrap-around services to assist the people living there, including case management, mental health care and housing managers to assist the residents and connect them to long-term housing.
“We’re in a crisis,” Hahn said. “The public generally looks at our vacant county property and wonders why we’re not using it as quickly as possible to bring people inside, to keep people off the streets. And that’s what this motion would do.”
The building was formerly used by the L.A. County Public Health Department for storage space, but it is currently vacant, Hahn said.
“They’re sleeping right up next to the building and it just seemed to make sense to open that up and if all possible bring them inside,” Hahn said.
Ivan Sulic, field deputy for Janice Hahn, said he spoke with 10 of the homeless people that lived outside the building and they all said they would come inside the building if it was turned into a shelter. None of the people he spoke to refused.
Part of the reason was because pets will be allowed in the shelter, Sulic said. He spoke to a woman who was willing to come in, but only if she could bring her dog.
Hahn said that while it only has 40 beds, she believes it sends the message that the county is looking at every available asset to help homeless people. The City of Los Angeles says it will be opening its own 100-bed bridge home in San Pedro in a few months. However, the 525 N. Beacon St. Bridge Home shelter hasn’t even broken ground and may not be open on the promised June 15 deadline. On the other hand Hahn’s shelter is promised to be open in 45 days at a fraction of the cost.
The most recent homeless count by the Los Angeles Homeless Authority recorded more than 600 homeless people in San Pedro, so neither comes close to offering the amount of beds that San Pedro needs, Hahn said. She described the shelter as being merely a drop in the bucket.
Hahn’s motion directs the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s homeless services outreach team to work with the Los Angeles Police Department to conduct outreach efforts in encampments around the shelter.
The building is large, but requires surprisingly little work, Hahn said. Her motion authorizes the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works to complete any repairs or remodeling.
Hahn is hoping construction could take as little as 45 days, but doubted it would actually be done that quickly. The Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council voted 10-0 on Jan. 14, to approve the project, with one abstention, chairwoman Carrie Scoville. Hahn was present at the meeting.
Hahn said that she is aware of the community’s concerns about enforcement and sanitation and that both could be problematic going forward. The LAPD does not think they have enough resources to do extra patrols near the shelter and LA Sanitation will not make cleaning up near the shelter a priority. However, Hahn spoke with the commanding officer of the Harbor Division of the LAPD. She said she might be able to make a deal that involves using county funding to pay for extra patrols.
Harbor Interfaith was chosen because they are local and familiar with the people who live in the encampment.
“Harbor Interfaith already has a relationship,” Hahn said. “I’m not an expert on anything, but the biggest battle of getting our homeless friends inside is relationships and trust and sometimes it takes years for them to trust anyone.”
One of the biggest struggles will be for a provider to build trust with the people that live nearby to convince them to go into the shelter and Harbor Interfaith was chosen because they already have relationships with a lot of the people living outside the building.
“This is the first time that the faith community, the business community and the Central SPNC have come together on this issue in over five years,” James Preston Allen, the former CeSPNC homeless chairman and publisher of this newspaper said,. “And it was our Homeless Committee that took the lead in making this happen. I am proud of the part our NC has taken in this and I look forward to Central playing a vital part in other critical issues in the days to come.”
The Central Neighborhood Council also passed a concurring resolution to create a community advisory board to address neighborhood concerns with the operation of both shelters.