Winter Shelter Follow-Up Report

It has been nearly a month since the closing of our winter shelters around the Los Angeles area. From December 1 to March 15, Union Rescue Mission’s subsidiary, EIMAGO, along with help from LAHSA and PATH Achieve, oversaw  four extra shelters to house and feed thousands during the cold winter months.

Through these shelters, over 3,400 individuals were given shelter and food through the services of Union Rescue Mission.

Over the four months the shelters were in operation, 186 families came to find a safe place to escape from the cold winter weather. Of those families, 9 found placement into permanent housing options.

URM, one of the four sites, increased the number of beds every night; 1,053 more guests called URM their temporary home.

The Glendale facility saw an increase of 30% more beds provided from numbers last year.

As family numbers increased in our shelters, the numbers of individuals in the shelters saw a decrease by 2% from last year. However, numbers were overwhelming with providing about 55,000 beds over four months to those looking for a place to stay the winter.

Winter Shelter Nightly Average Guest

Downtown Avg: 182

Culver City Avg: 100

Glendale: 155

West LA: 126

All of our provision to those experiencing homeless during the winter months this year would not have been possible without the support of people such as yourself! We want to thank all of our donors and supporters who make our work possible and help us in ending homelessness in LA!

First Water Walk of the Year

Los Angeles reached 90 degrees yesterday, so we had our first water walk of the year. Every time the temperature is 85 degrees or higher, we go out to hand out cold water bottles to every thirsty person on Skid Row.

After circling the URM neighbourhood, we passed out about 50 cases of cold water bottles and brought a little bit of comfort to every one out in the heat.

To show love to the people of Skid Row, Andy makes sure that  every person we walk past has a cold bottle in their hand.

In these warm weather conditions people were appreciative to recieve water from Andy and our other staff volunteering on this hot day. As summer approaches, we will begin to have water walks more frequently. Follow Andy on Twitter or our Facebook page for updates, and as always, anyone is welcom to join us for a Water Walk to bless the people in our community!