HELP FOR HOMELESS FAMILIES NEW MISSION COMPLEX TO HOUSE SKID ROW PARENTS, KIDS.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

Amid intensified attention on Los Angeles' homeless population, a downtown mission announced plans Friday for a 71-acre complex north of Lake View Terrace to aid up to 80 families from Skid Row.

Union Rescue Mission said it paid about $7.5 million for the old Foresters Haven on a remote site adjacent to the Angeles National Forest and the former Lopez Canyon Landfill.

Officials said the campus - which includes rolling lawns, a waterfall, a koi-filled pool and lodge-style dormitories and buildings - will be used as transitional housing for up to 300 people, about 27 percent of whom landed on Skid Row after living in the San Fernando or Antelope valleys.

``It's really all about getting women and children away from the dangers of the streets of Los Angeles and out to a peaceful, restful place ... where they can be restored,'' said Andy Bales, president of the mission, which houses about 40 families at its downtown facility.

The move comes as city scrutiny of Skid Row has increased in recent weeks and some have raised concerns that city efforts to aid the homeless would include moving facilities to the San Fernando Valley.

Residents with the Kagel Canyon Civic Association - who would be the closest neighbors to the proposed center about a mile away - were briefed by mission staffers in August and tentatively agreed to the project as long as conditions such as beefed-up patrols, adequate staff and association input were met.

``The community recognizes that the facility would probably not be welcome in Brentwood, and that there exists a potential for some issues with troubled kids, possible drug use and potential for some male figures coming and causing some trouble,'' said association President Randy Drew.

``That being said, the consensus of our residents ... seemed to me to be that it was a good and worthy cause.

``I am proud that my community seems willing to risk potential sacrifice to help the people in need by partnering with the Union Rescue Mission.''

Other community groups farther from the site just north of Lake View Terrace said they hadn't yet heard of the mission's plan, and wanted more information on the potential impact.

``We definitely need to get involved. While it might be a positive for them ... we have to hear how the stakeholders in the community feel,'' said Bonnie Bernard, vice president of the Sylmar Neighborhood Council.

Before the facility can open - possibly by February - it must get a county conditional-use permit, which would include public hearings, as well as make some renovations.

While Bales said city and county funding would be sought, city officials noted that money from the city's Affordable Housing Trust Fund - which Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced this week would be doubled to $100 million - is not available for transitional housing.

Union Rescue Mission purchased the property with an equity line of credit, and has raised $3 million as part of an $18 million private-public campaign to renovate the facility, as well as provide extensive counseling, education, mental health, life skills and other services with 28 staff over the next three years.

Families - mostly single moms with children, but including some dads - who either are already on Skid Row or who are about to lose their homes, would be eligible for the facility, to be called Hope Gardens Family Center.

Bales said residents would be allowed to stay a maximum of two years and the mission's goal is to return families to their communities of origin or low-income housing throughout the county.

Around-the-clock security at the gated facility also is planned.

Irene Sumida, director of Fenton Avenue Charter School in Lake View Terrace, said the school is prepared to handle up to 75 children from the center, saying the school's experience so far with children who've lived in shelters has been positive.

``They are wonderful models in terms of the appreciation they show for what they receive at school,'' Sumida said.

The center also is being embraced by homeless advocates, who say it would represent a new environmental model.

``Everyone universally agrees Skid Row is not a good place for anyone, but that it's terribly detrimental to families with children,'' said Mitchell Netburn, executive director for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

``There is nothing I can think of like that setting, a little community unto itself,'' Netburn said of the new site. ``It's like paradise.''

Netburn said one of the problems with getting people off Skid Row is finding reliable service providers as well as sites where NIMBYism isn't overwhelming.

Sheriff Lee Baca - whose plans for a South Los Angeles village for homeless people in transition fell apart amid NIMBYism and funding problems - called the proposal's location and services ``ideal.''

``We can't afford to have children homeless,'' Baca said, adding that he's convinced the mission will manage the facility well and won't be transporting ``a nuisance'' from downtown to the Valley.

Bales said the community has nothing to fear from the mission, recounting some families' reaction a couple of months ago when they got a preview of the center during an outing from downtown.

``The kids were transformed, the teenagers were running around ... the moms were relaxed.''

Beth Barrett, [phone]

beth.barrett(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

photo, map

Photo:

Scott Chamberlain, left, vice president of women and family ministries, and mission President Andy Bales visit the facility.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer

Map:

Hope Gardens