Finding Shelter in Santa Clarita

Despite protests from a handful of residents, the Santa Clarita City Council followed the honorable course last week when it approved the suburban community’s first homeless shelter. The shelter, scheduled to open Monday in a former cosmetics company warehouse, gives the city’s small homeless population a place to sleep, shower and eat a warm meal this winter. Last week’s storms highlighted the need.

The unanimous approval also sends a clear message that city officials are willing to take responsibility for the social ills that many residents thought they were fleeing by moving to the Santa Clarita Valley. That’s encouraging--particularly because residents in bedroom communities like Santa Clarita often are portrayed as selfish suburbanites who don’t care about much beyond their own fences.

Officials estimate only a few dozen homeless people live in Santa Clarita, but opponents of the shelter fear that the city will be inundated by potentially dangerous vagabonds in search of free food and a safe bed. But Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies who patrol the area don’t think that’s likely. They report few problems with the city’s existing homeless population and doubt that troublemakers will suddenly flock to town just to sleep on a cot in an old warehouse.

Although the city will provide two staff members to help run the shelter, the bulk of the operation will be handled by volunteers from the local Interfaith Council. The city will pick up the bill for utilities and some minor expenses, but donations will cover all other costs. Over time, city officials would like to develop recreational facilities in other parts of the city-owned warehouse.

Providing a place--however spartan--where the weakest members of society can put down safely for a stormy night is among the most basic functions of a local government, alongside essentials such as public safety and sanitation. Santa Clarita saw the need and filled it.