Bid to Harbor Homeless in Schools Jolts Neighbors

If one county official’s idea to house Los Angeles’ homeless at vacant schools in the West Valley comes true, the newcomers don’t figure to be met by the Welcome Wagon.

Homeowners living near closed elementary schools targeted by County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn as possible temporary shelter sites said Friday they will fight any effort to reopen the campuses for such uses.

If they fail to block the proposed campus conversions, some residents vowed, they will pack up and move to new neighborhoods.

6 Valley Sites Targeted

Hahn announced plans to ask other board members Tuesday to open eight such shelters. Six of the sites are at San Fernando Valley campuses closed last year because of slumping enrollment.

Hahn said the schools could be used as temporary shelter for homeless women and children, “not winos or derelicts.” Men could be accommodated if they were part of a family unit.

Valley campuses pinpointed by Hahn are Garden Grove and Newcastle Avenue schools in Reseda, Prairie Street School in Northridge, Rhoda Street School in Encino, Enadia Way Elementary School in Canoga Park and Parthenia Street School in Sepulveda. They are among 22 Los Angeles city campuses closed in the last three years because of enrollment problems.

According to Hahn, people accepted for residence in the shelters could be taken in county vehicles from downtown, where many of Los Angeles’ homeless gather, to the Valley.

But such a move would be “totally unacceptable” to neighborhoods around the schools, said Phil Cummings, 33, who has lived across the street from Rhoda Street School for seven years.

“What would they do in this neighborhood? You have to have a car to get around out here. It would be wrong to bring poor people into a middle-class neighborhood such as this.”

Cummings, who is a film animator and the father of two, said he would be fearful of mentally ill persons and drunks who might be accepted at Rhoda Street School.

“It sticks in your throat to speak that way, but is that really a solution to the problem?” he asked.

Neighbor Judy Gordon, 24, said she would “move instantly” if officials approved such a shelter.

“The school concept is probably a great idea. But the fact I live across the street from one of them and have two little kids makes a difference,” Gordon said. “It sounds terrible, but the idea makes me nervous.”

Reseda homemaker Sue Linsley, 29, said she would also move from her rented home opposite Newcastle Avenue School “if we were going to have bums passed out on the street” because of a shelter.

“We have four kids and there are lots of other children in this neighborhood. They should never have closed Newcastle as a school,” Linsley said.

Steve Albeck, a 28-year-old clothing salesman who has lived across the street from Enadia Way School for five years, said he would definitely move his family if a shelter were set up at that padlocked campus.

“It’s bad enough having the school closed and having people use its parking lot as a hangout. Homeless people would deteriorate it further,” Albeck predicted. “It’s probably a great idea--but not for people living across the street.”

But neighbor Dorothy Sforza disagreed.

“I know what it’s like to be homeless,” said Sforza, 68. “I live here with my son, but I had to give up my home in Los Angeles. Without him I wouldn’t have a home, either.”

As for Enadia Way School: “I don’t like to see it empty,” Sforza said.

Conversion May Be Difficult

Los Angeles school officials, meanwhile, said converting the empty schools into temporary shelters may be easier said than done.

School district spokesman Marty Estrin said the schools would require alterations to provide shower facilities and dorm space for residential purposes. They would also require new conditional use permits from the city.

“I presume the district would be asked to donate them to the county. But part of the reason for closure of the 22 schools was to lease or sell them for revenue,” he said.

Eleven have so far been leased at prices ranging from $48,000 to $90,000 a year. One has also been tentatively sold for $2.6 million, Estrin said.