Homeless Shelter Gets Early Look

By Jason Wells

GLENDALE — County officials told Glendale’s Homeless Coalition Thursday that financial incentives for emergency winter shelter operators would be increased in a bid to attract more applicants, a year after they scrambled to find a service provider for the program at the Burbank armory.

Providers of services for the homeless in Glendale last year declined to participate in the winter shelter program, which is funded through the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, citing past difficulties in dealing with red tape and securing expense reimbursements.

“It’s time to take a critical look at this program and its true costs,” Michael Arnold, chief operating officer for the authority, told the Homeless Coalition, which is composed of local nonprofit homeless service providers, churches and the city.

As part of his announcement that the county would provide a two-month advance for startup capital and a bump in per-client reimbursement rates, Arnold also sought input on how to improve the program.

It was welcome news for officials in both cities, who last year were left with the possibility of there being no winter homeless shelter for the first time in more than 10 years amid ongoing construction at Glendale’s National Guard armory and community concerns complicating a response from Burbank over the use of its own armory.

The Burbank City Council eventually voted to support the shelter at its armory after the county brokered a last-minute deal with Los Angeles-based Union Rescue Mission to operate the program.

The council did so under pressure from county officials who said that without access to the armory, transients would be left out in the cold for the season. Even then, the shelter opened two weeks past the start of the winter shelter season after the issue was pushed to Burbank and an attempt to build a coalition of providers in Glendale — which has historically hosted the shelter — fell through.

That county officials are starting a month early this year in their bid to court shelter operators with more attractive terms “is a much better scenario,” Burbank City Manager Mary Alvord said.

Officials in Glendale also welcomed the effort.

“It seems like they’re making a concerted effort to reach out to the communities that usually host the shelters,” said Jess Duran, assistant director of Glendale Community Development and Housing Department.

To guard against any last-minute wrangling, Arnold said his agency would likely start soliciting applications from potential winter shelter service providers at the end of May, a month ahead of schedule.

Through those applications, Arnold said he was encouraging providers to submit their costs for operating the shelter, which would then be reviewed before the actual budget is set. The new process would allow the agency to set a budget that reflected the true cost of service, rather than forcing providers to mold their applications to predetermined amounts.

Insufficient funding for the Burbank shelter was a point of contention last season when Union Rescue Mission officials said they were nearly $50,000 short for the operation, a deficit the city helped to fill.

Burbank also used its own money to pay for PATH Achieve Glendale to provide case management and counseling services to shelter clients, albeit “late in the game,” Alvord said.

While the experience was “not a negative” one, Alvord said any effort by the county to increase funding for the shelter program would be a “big deal.”

Attracting applicants early on was an issue Thursday that was not lost on a Glendale Homeless Coalition still weary from being put through the wringer last year over finding a site.

“Recruitment is a real concern to me,” Natalie Profant-Komuro, executive director of PATH Achieve Glendale, told Arnold.