BATTLE OVER L.A.'S HOMELESS SUPPORT STALLS FOR SKID ROW FAMILIES CITY, COUNTY EFFORTS LAG BEHIND NATION.

Byline: TROY ANDERSON Staff Writer

Two years after Los Angeles vowed to aid families on its Skid Row, efforts have become mired in contentious debate about whether to remove children from homeless parents, where to locate regional shelters, and how to coordinate city and county efforts.

Los Angeles officials estimate that women and children have become the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population and that the blighted downtown area is now home to about 1,600 women and children -- a quarter of them from the San Fernando Valley.

But as the city and county in recent months have allocated more than $329 million to address homelessness countywide, advocates say they are frustrated by a lack of progress.

``Both the city and county need to figure out ways to respond to this heartbreaking crisis and to do so in an expeditious way,'' said Bob Erlenbusch, executive director of the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness. ``It's just irresponsible to have (hundreds of millions of dollars) allocated and not a dime gone out the door yet.''

Torie Osborn, senior adviser to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, said progress has been slow but steady as the city and county are significantly behind 220 other cities that have reduced homelessness by as much as 30 percent over the past decade.

Osborn noted that New York City, which had 40,000 to 50,000 homeless people two decades ago, now devotes $1.7 billion annually to homelessness, has 34,000 people living in shelters and is moving them into housing.

`A dumping ground'

In comparison, Los Angeles city and county spend $500 million to $600 million -- including private contributions -- and only have 14,000 shelter beds for 90,000 homeless people.

``This is a massive problem that the region has been pretty much in denial about for a very long time,'' Osborn said. ``For decades, Skid Row has been a dumping ground and has been a very bad regional solution to the problem of homelessness.

``Within the last year, there is a new level of understanding of the scope of the issue. Political will is beginning, the public is grappling with this issue, and I would say we are at the very beginning -- way far behind every other big city in America.''

The county's Skid Row Outreach Team -- nearly two dozen children's services, welfare, mental health and public health officials -- is at ground zero in the effort to help get families off Skid Row.

Based at the Union Rescue Mission, Midnight Mission and Weingart Access Center, they rove Skid Row streets to ensure children are safe and receiving adequate medical and mental health care and educations.

They also help parents find housing as well as government benefits, drug and alcohol treatment and job training. The team has aided about 1,100 families since January.

But the team's efforts have sparked a heated debate among the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and homeless advocates.

Supervisor Gloria Molina and others argue Skid Row is simply too dangerous for children and that the team -- overseen by the Department of Children and Family Services -- should remove children from parents on Skid Row who refuse services, place them in dangerous situations or don't supervise them.

But Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke and others argue DCFS's tactics are too aggressive and the agency shouldn't be the ``poor police,'' simply removing children from families because they are poor and homeless.

Burke and others say some homeless families are so concerned that they'll be separated that they're fleeing any help.

And DCFS statistics show children of homeless families on Skid Row are being removed at about twice the rate elsewhere in the county.

Hiding from DCFS

Of the 400 families the team assessed from January through September, DCFS opened 60 child welfare cases, a 15 percent detention rate. That compares with a countywide DCFS detention rate of 7.6 percent.

Angela Harper, 46, a homeless mother of two girls staying at the Union Rescue Mission, said some mothers are so scared the welfare team is going to take their children away that they hide from workers.

``Mothers are so worried about being confronted by DCFS that it's unbelievable,'' Harper said. ``Women ask me every day, `How do I keep them from harassing me? How do I keep my child from being taken from me?' ... It's like Damocles' sword hanging over their heads.''

At the mission, where nearly half of the 785 residents are women and children, President Andy Bales said he would like to move 225 to a safer area, but the county hasn't given him permission yet to hold public hearings on whether the mission can use a recently purchased site.

That site -- the 78-acre Hope Gardens Family Center northeast of Sylmar -- would be used as a transitional housing facility but has generated opposition from residents of Kagel Canyon.

``The moms I know try everything humanly possible to care for their kids,'' Bales said. ``All they need is a bit of hope. It's interesting that the county has delayed moms from moving out to Hope Gardens.

``It would be real unfortunate if they came and took kids away at the same time that they were slowing the process up for us to move moms and kids to a place of hope.''

But Molina -- who spearheaded the creation of the welfare team after seeing homeless women pushing children in strollers -- said Skid Row is inappropriate for anybody, especially children.

Molina cites the story of a baby whose father got help from the welfare team last year -- diapers, formula and motel vouchers -- but whose baby was found dead days later.

Miguel Santana, Molina's chief of staff, said the father was not properly assessed.

``It turned out he had six other kids taken away from him and he had mental health problems,'' Santana said.

Molina said the baby's mother was in jail at the time.

``Some people might think Skid Row is like any other place,'' Molina said. ``I disagree. I think just the environment of Skid Row is an abusive environment for any child.''

After the incident, the team was directed to make child safety top priority and a new protocol was developed for assessment of families.

Intervention

Theresa Rupel, manager of the team and a DCFS assistant regional manager, said that if a family refuses county services, the team asks a variety of questions to determine whether the children are being properly cared for.

``And of course when any member of the team sees a child with obvious visual indicators, or a parent has signs of being mentally ill ... then the team would call a supervisor to make an immediate intervention or call the child abuse hotline to do a more in-depth investigation,'' Rupel said.

City and county officials said they expect to take several more steps next year to help move families off Skid Row, including moving forward with plans to establish regional stabilization centers throughout the county.

Lari Sheehan, assistant administrative officer in the county's Chief Administrative Office, said a group of south Los Angeles County cities and another group of cities in the San Fernando Valley are working with the county to set up the facilities.

And after months of delays, Sheehan said she expects the county to sign a $2 million contract with Beyond Shelter next week as part of a pilot project to move 500 homeless families off Skid Row into rental housing in the county and provide services to help them back on their feet.

The city and county will provide 350 Section 8 housing vouchers costing more than $25 million. And the county will provide an additional $4 million to pay for extended-stay hotel vouchers and rental subsidies for the other 150 families.

Tanya Tull, president of Beyond Shelter, which has helped permanently house more than 3,300 homeless families in the past 18 years, said she's been frustrated by the county's slow pace.

No vacancies 

Tull ran out of motel vouchers in August and said she has had to turn away about 200 families seeking help because the missions and shelters are full.

``I have spent nights just crying my heart out because I didn't have to do this for many years,'' Tull said. ``In the last few months, I've had families coming to me who are sleeping in their cars with teenage children and babies. These are the lucky families because they have cars to sleep in.

``It's the worst-case scenario I've seen in my 25 years in L.A. Tonight, when you go to sleep, remember the families with children who are going to sleep in their cars.''

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com

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