Busing Homeless to Sylmar Rejected

A Los Angeles commission on Friday rejected a proposal to send homeless people from Santa Clarita to a Los Angeles National Guard armory for the winter, arguing that the valley city should serve its homeless population locally.

Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority commissioners said they feared that allowing about two dozen homeless people to be bused to the Sylmar armory would set a precedent and make it easier for other suburbs to duck responsibility for providing shelter and support.

The commission instead proposed that during the next two weeks -- the time it would take to prepare the armory -- Los Angeles, Santa Clarita and county officials work to find a shelter site either in Santa Clarita or in nearby unincorporated county territory.

Any solution then would be presented to the Santa Clarita City Council, which is scheduled to meet Dec. 14. If there is no agreement on a suitable site, the L.A. commission will consider other alternatives.

Santa Clarita now has a chance to work cooperatively on a regional solution to the homeless problem, said Commissioner Sarah Dusseault.

A deputy for Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich said, however, that the decision seemed to punish Santa Clarita while ignoring the needs of its homeless. Antonovich’s district includes the city, and he had offered county funds to help offset the $240,000 costs of opening the Sylmar armory, which can accommodate 125 people.

“We understand the concerns, but they did not address the immediate issue of what to do with the homeless people now during the winter months,” said aide Raine Ritchey.

The dispute emerged when Santa Clarita recently decided not to open a winter shelter (last year one operated at the Via Princessa Metrolink station) after meeting community opposition to virtually all of the sites that had been proposed. Officials who attended Friday’s meeting, including Mayor Bob Kellar, said they had not intended to burden Los Angeles.

But several commissioners sharply questioned Santa Clarita’s efforts and sincerity. Commissioner Ruth Schwartz noted that, in square miles, Santa Clarity is one of the largest cities in the county.

“I can’t understand why, with all of that territory, you couldn’t have found a single site for the three months the winter shelter would operate,” Schwartz said. “I’ve heard that there’s not anyone on the [Santa Clarita] City Council who really wants a shelter, and that’s what worries me.”

Commission Chairwoman JoAnn Garcia scolded Santa Clarita officials for bowing to neighborhood pressure.

“In all candor, I’m really appalled at this,” she said. “I feel Santa Clarita is not meeting its obligation.”

Kellar noted that his city had previously supported the countywide winter shelter program, which operates from Dec. 1 through March 15.

To partially compensate for not opening a shelter this year, the city recently awarded $36,000 to a nonprofit group to bus homeless people from Santa Clarita to shelters in the San Fernando Valley and downtown Los Angeles for year-round services. That program will continue independently of whatever is resolved for the winter shelter participants, Kellar said.

“We have been verbally assaulted on an annual basis by people for and against the shelter, and we believed that we needed a new model on how to serve the homeless,” he said.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry, who has opposed Santa Clarita’s plans, offered to help it find a “decent” site for a shelter and to speak with homeowners’ groups.

“You have my every sympathy about the outcry, anger and venting,” Perry told Santa Clarita officials. “We deal with it every day. But as elected officials, we have to make a decision, and there are some issues upon which we have to make a moral decision about where we draw the line.”

Perry’s comments were echoed by representatives of Mayor James K. Hahn, Los Angeles City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa and council President Alex Padilla, who represents the Sylmar district and opposed opening the armory to Santa Clarita’s homeless.

But the decision, for the time being at least, also leaves homeless people without shelter, conceded commission Executive Director Mitchell Netburn. Officials estimate there are at least 175 homeless people in Santa Clarita, and the winter shelter last year averaged about 25 to 30 people nightly.

Netburn said outreach teams will try to locate families and give them motel vouchers.