Spur-of-Moment Gift of $2,500 Allows Shelter to Pitch Its Tents

A Canyon Country grading contractor who provided $2,500 for a tent city to shelter homeless people in downtown Los Angeles through the holidays said he made the donation on the spur of the moment because “they needed it.”

Geoff Kail, the contractor, said he was watching television Friday evening when he saw a news segment about a proposed tent city being in jeopardy because it lacked the required $2,500 insurance premium.

“Right then and there I decided to give the money,” Kail said Sunday. “Basically, I had the money available, and I felt that they needed it.”

Kail, who said he had a good year financially, said he has never done such a thing before.

Sponsors of the project--on the site of the old state government office building on First Street between Spring Street and Broadway--say it will shelter 300 homeless people from Tuesday at least through Dec. 30, although organizers hope to keep it open at least through Jan. 2.

The shelter was in jeopardy Thursday after state officials said they could not waive the insurance premium, and organizers of the tent city, who are homeless themselves, said they would “need a miracle” to save the program.

Kail said he made the donation partly as a holiday gesture but also because he believed that the homeless were working to change their predicament.

‘We All Have Had Bad Breaks’

“We all have had bad breaks now and then,” Kail said. “They’re trying to get out of the situation they’re in . . . . They’re not just looking for a free hand or a one-time deal.

“If a few other people give them a hand, it’ll make a difference,” he said.

Ted Hayes, one of the organizers of the shelter, who said he lives under a bridge in Los Angeles, said the tent city was needed to show the plight of the homeless after a nationwide survey presented at the Conference of Mayors in Washington last week. The survey reported that Los Angeles experienced the biggest rise in demand for emergency shelter this year among 25 cities examined.

Kail said he hoped the tent city will increase the public’s awareness of the increasing numbers of homeless in Los Angeles and across the country.

Hayes said the donation from Kail showed that “American people do care.”