Troy Anderson of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin writes about the increase in visitors to winter shelters around Los Angeles County.
Despite innovative efforts by the city, county and nonprofit agencies to help keep homeless families off the streets, officials at rescue missions and winter shelters in Los Angeles County said Thursday their facilities are being overwhelmed by homeless families.
Andy Bales, president of the Union Rescue Mission in downtown Los Angeles, said the number of homeless families staying at the mission has tripled to 45 over this time last year.
At his winter shelters in Burbank, West Los Angeles, Culver City and downtown, Bales saw more families in the first three days this year than the entire winter last year.
“I think we’re in an emergency,” Bales said. “And I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. We get vouchers from the (Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority) to put families up when they come to winter shelters and we’ve used four-fifths of the vouchers we get for the entire season already.
“We have a bigger problem now than we’ve ever dreamed of before.”