Armory Not Available for the Homeless

County officials were scrambling for alternative plans for emergency shelter for the homeless Wednesday after learning second-hand that a California National Guard armory in Long Beach won’t be available for use this weekend, even if the weather is cold and rainy.

A National Guard spokesman said the county was notified at least a month ago that it plans to use the armory for routine drills on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A county official, however, said the notification was an indecipherable entry on a winter activities schedule.

Verta Nash, coordinator of homeless programs for the county, said the entry is “January 6-8, Camp Pendleton, WPNS, QUAL.”

“I have no idea what that means,” she said.

Sgt. Carolyn Hamilton, a spokeswoman for the Guard, said the entry means that Guard members assigned to the Long Beach armory will undergo weapons training and that the firing range portion of that training would take place at Camp Pendleton.

The Long Beach armory is one of 15 throughout California that will not be available as homeless shelters this weekend because of training drills, said Guard spokesman Maj. Steve Mensik. Officials in Orange County said Tuesday that they too learned only this week that armories in Fullerton and Santa Ana are among the 15.

Nash said that it was not until Wednesday afternoon, after she had received inquiries from a reporter, that she learned that the Guard had called the private agency that operates the Long Beach armory shelter on Monday and told the director about the drills. No call was received by county officials, who are responsible for the program, she said.

Under a state program begun in 1987, the armories are given over to the homeless whenever temperatures drop below 40 degrees in dry weather and 50 degrees in rainy weather. The program rules, however, state that National Guard activities take precedence over any others.

Training drills are scheduled for Jan. 21-22 at three other armories in the county, but plans have been made to accommodate the drills and the homeless program, officials said.

As many as 200 homeless single people have slept in the Long Beach armory almost every night since mid-December, county officials said. Sick people and families are routinely given hotel vouchers.

The county will probably distribute more vouchers than usual and find other sites to turn into emergency shelters if it gets cold this weekend, Nash said.

A meteorologist at WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times, said the extended outlook for the weekend is for fair skies with nighttime temperatures ranging from 38 to 48 degrees.