VALLEY HOMELESS SHELTER PRAISED ACTIVISTS RENEW ATTACK ON POVERTY.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - Behind one set of doors was an old motel hiding rent-by-the-hour beds; behind another, a derelict senior home turned haven for homeless squatters.

That was 20 years ago. Now, both buildings at Los Angeles Family Housing serve as shelters for homeless veterans and families - and as a national showpiece Tuesday during part of a coast-to-coast tour spotlighting the plight of the poor.

``This is great, this is great,'' said Derrick L. Span, president of Community Action Partnership, a Washington, D.C.-based umbrella group for 1,000 anti-poverty agencies, who joined state Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-Van Nuys, for a tour of the North Hollywood facility, which offers food, shelter and support services for the poor.

``One of the most important things to see is sites like this - places that help get people off the street so they can get on their feet again,'' said Span. ``We need more money for transitional housing.''

Span's tour of 10 U.S. cities aims to put poverty back into the national limelight and to call attention to a proposed 25 percent, $155 million cut in federal community services spending.

Today, Span will join local leaders and state officials for a rally against poverty on the steps of City Hall.

``An end of poverty is not about legislation, it's about heart,'' said Alarcon, chairman of a Senate committee on poverty, whose father lives two blocks from the North Hollywood shelter. ``People have to want to end poverty, to believe it can be done - and we're not quite there.''

``Poverty is the most pervasive domestic threat that Americans face in this century,'' added Mayor James Hahn in a statement. ``The community rally to end poverty in California is key to educating Angelenos about poverty's grip on this city.''

In 1983, citizens and clergy founded L.A. Family Housing, transforming the decrepit La Fiesta Motel into a 135-bed Valley shelter for the homeless.

Since then, the agency has opened a 340-bed transitional-living center for low-income families - mostly single mothers - and has expanded to serve nearly 15,000 residents a year in 23 facilities throughout the city.

``Keeps us alive,'' said Kenny Regan, 52, a North Hollywood construction worker rendered homeless after he was hospitalized for a ruptured appendix, nursing some morning coffee at the shelter.

The poor of Los Angeles now struggle to pay higher rents with lower- paying jobs, officials say, as the state and federal governments attempt to balance budgets by cutting grants and services.

``As federal money flows down to Los Angeles, there will be less of a pot for us, and that will affect our core services,'' said Jeffrey S. Farber, L.A. Family Housing's chief operating officer.

All that meant little Tuesday to Celine Carman, a 3-year-old girl playing with water at the shelter's colorful public day care center.

``Oh, my goodness, you're sooo pretty,'' said Alarcon, a former Los Angeles councilman who supported the founding of the shelter. ``Are you drinking soda? Are you making dinner? That looks sooo good.''

The San Fernando Valley Homeless and Housing Coalition, which includes L.A. Family Housing, will host its first Homeless and Resource Breakfast and Job Fair between 8 a.m. and noon Thursday at Sepulveda United Methodist Church, 15435 Rayen St., North Hills.