County OKs Funding Programs for Homeless

The county Board of Supervisors has agreed to award a combination of state and county funding to counseling and shelter programs for the homeless on the Westside and in Long Beach and Pasadena.

The action is part of the board’s 2-month-old effort to step up approval of all pending contracts that would help the homeless mentally ill.

The supervisors voted 4 to 0, with Supervisor Kenneth Hahn absent, to award $247,000 to the Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center based in Culver City to open a 12-bed facility for the mentally ill homeless on the Westside.

A spokeswoman for the center said they are still searching for a location, but hope to find a building in the Santa Monica, Culver City or Venice area.

The facility, known as Crossroads, will be their second such program on the Westside, where they already operate Jump Street, a six-bed facility for the homeless mentally ill at 3754 Overland Ave.

Crossroads will allow homeless individuals to stay an average of 90 to 120 days. Clients will receive training in communication skills, relaxation therapy, art therapy and several other services to help them return to the mainstream, county officials said.

The flurry of agreements signed by the board Tuesday stemmed from a vote it took last November instructing the county Department of Mental Health to give top priority to completing all pending contracts that could help the homeless mentally ill, county officials said.

Supervisor Ed Edelman, who has championed several measures concerning the homeless, said all of the contracts “were in the works” long before the board’s pivotal vote last week to pay county workers to go to gathering spots frequented by the homeless on cold nights and persuade them to accept free vouchers for hotel rooms.

Edelman has said that last week’s vote was the first time the conservative-majority board has backed him in his efforts to get emergency help for the county’s homeless.

Good Timing

This week’s approval of contracts for shelter and counseling programs “couldn’t have come at a better time,” he said.

“We have people on the streets in what you would think of as affluent areas, Woodland Hills, Westwood, Santa Monica, the beaches,” Edelman said. “It’s a county problem and it’s a national problem.”

The board also awarded $127,000 to the Transitional Living Centers for Los Angeles County Inc., based in Lawndale, to open a new facility for the homeless mentally ill in downtown Long Beach, county officials said.

Dr. Kenneth Parker, the program’s director, said the 12-bed shelter will be the first in Long Beach devoted exclusively to the homeless mentally ill.

In Pasadena, the board awarded $113,000 to the Fuller Theological Seminary to offer day care and to work on the streets with the homeless mentally ill and with those who are at risk of becoming homeless.

The seminary plans to operate a drop-in center where the mentally ill can gather for organized activities or simply get off the streets, county officials said.