THOUSANDS LOOK FOR WAY HOME TRANSIENTS HOPE TO GET BACK INTO STABLE LIFE.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - Twenty-two years on Skid Row cost David R. Carter his middle finger, his front teeth and a 9-to-5 "life in the middle.''

Carter now sees a potential path back to the middle class, thanks to a San Fernando Valley homeless shelter that could be expanded into one of five regional mega-shelters in Los Angeles County.

"I pray to have a second chance," said Carter, 42, one of more than 500 transients at two Los Angeles Family Housing Corp. shelters in North Hollywood. "Every time I think I can't live in the middle, I look at my right hand.

"I can't afford to keep losing fingers."

The Daily News reported Thursday that a blue-ribbon panel had estimated that it would cost $12 billion over the next decade to end Los Angeles County's homeless problem.

The report came just days after county officials moved forward on a plan to spend $100 million to open five "regional stabilization centers" to assist the estimated 90,000 people who are homeless on any given night.

Officials hope the centers, located throughout the county in new or expanded shelters, would stop the "dumping" on downtown Skid Row of transients released by hospitals and law enforcement agencies.

Each center would provide triage 24-7 for area transients.

Each would be staffed with mental-health workers, substance-abuse experts and social workers to help transients find jobs, homes and services.

"We're not bringing homeless from Skid Row," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky on KPCC-FM (89.3). "We have homeless in every community in Los Angeles.

"We're going to bring the services to them."

The nonprofit Los Angeles Family Housing Corp. has been serving area homeless since it transformed a dilapidated motel - and a neighborhood that had been full of prostitutes and drug dealers - in 1983.

With their neighboring singles and family shelters in the 7800 block of Lankershim Boulevard about to undergo a $2 million renovation, agency officials said they would like to expand as a county regional homeless center.

"Of course we're interested in expanding services for the homeless," said Jerome Nilssen, project director for the singles Valley shelter. "We would like to be at the table."

Nilssen - a former minister, theologian, book editor and social worker - said he came out of retirement to work with the Valley's homeless population.

He and his staff provide room and board, substance-abuse counseling and job-placement services for the chronically homeless.

"We've got people who have used up their friends and family," said Nilssen, sporting a resplendent bow tie. "We think we have something to offer."

Eric Montoya - with his prison tattoos, from 10 years as a heroin addict, clearly visible above his shirt - got a fresh start at Los Angeles Family Housing and has been a caseworker there for five years. He also coaches his daughter's soccer team.

"This is the best and the last house on the block," he joked. "I would like to see it expand: more funding, more clients, more recovery, more services to the homeless."

And renewed hope for homeless people like Darryl Fields, 45, who moved from Baltimore to North Hollywood for a better life and ended up on the skids from alcohol and drugs.

After turning his life around at the Valley shelter five years ago, the steakhouse dishwasher later lost his apartment because of poor health and a cutback in work hours.

"I want to get healthy so I can go back to work," said Fields, cradling a volume of "More Five-Minute Mysteries."

"It felt good having that independence - a place I could call home that was mine."

Nearby church officials and business owners said the L.A. Family Housing shelter has been nothing but a good neighbor.

"The area's been cleared up tremendously," said Bill Johnson of Johnson Floor Covering across the street, who would not object to a shelter expansion. "Before, ... the prostitution and drug scene was unbelievable."

Carter, a one-time Valley shelter resident who lost his finger after it became infected while he was Dumpster diving, is grateful to be back.

I feel like I'm somebody," he said, on his 79th day without crack.

"It's different this time. I deserve everything I put work into. I'm not entitled to nothin'. It's a privilege to just live life."

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) In North Hollywood on Thursday, Nathaniel Mallard, left, and David Carter talk with Eric Montoya, right, a caseworker for the nonprofit Los Angeles Family Housing Corp., about the way into jobs and homes. County officials have promised to spend more than $100 million to expand shelters and services countywide.

(2) Eric Montoya, caseworker for a nonprofit corporation who turned his own life around after drug abuse and prison, discusses programs to help millions of homeless residents in the county find their way back to stability.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer

Box:

Los Angeles County homeless access centers

SOURCE: Los Angeles County