Shelters Finances

Orange County supervisors on Tuesday approved spending $170,000 to provide food and shelter for at least 250 homeless people this winter at two National Guard armories. Supervisors hope that with additional state and federal funding, the program will be able to shelter the homeless for 120 days, beginning in December. In past years, the county scrambled to keep the shelters open as long as possible.

The Dome Village homeless shelter in downtown Los Angeles has resolved record-keeping problems that threatened future federal funding for the unique encampment, according to a Los Angeles County agency that monitors homeless shelters. A audit six months ago by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority found that the Dome Village had failed to show that tenants were actually homeless before moving in and noted that some residents violated funding rules by staying longer than two years.

County officials have presented a Huntington Beach youth shelter with a $10,000 grant that will be used to help troubled teen-agers gain their independence. The Huntington Youth Shelter is an 18-bed residential care facility that has provided assistance to 92 runaways, as well as neglected and abused children, since it opened in January. County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder presented the shelter with a $10,000 check Saturday during a reception.

A Los Angeles County women's shelter listed in tax forms filed by the Nicole Brown Charitable Foundation as having received a $2,000 grant in 1995 never got the money, according to the director of the program that serves abused women. Angel Step Inn program director Patricia King said the shelter has never applied for a grant but did receive an unsolicited $25 check last Christmas.

In a show of support for what Mayor Robert F. Gentry called "the most wonderful affordable housing project I've seen in my 10 years on the City Council," the city will spend $108,000 to retire the mortgage at Friendship Shelter Inc. The nonprofit homeless shelter, which opened in 1989 to provide temporary housing and rehabilitation for adults, has been widely praised by city leaders as well as social service activists in the city and throughout the county.

The Orange County Bar Assn. has earmarked $10,000 for its homeless task force to assist in efforts to place transients in temporary housing. The much-needed funds will be used by the task force to help the county-based Shelter for the Homeless with its Operation Fresh Start. That program's goal is to place more than 400 homeless people in temporary living quarters before Santa Ana's anti-camping ordinance takes effect in September. Part of the money will be used for an Aug.

Several restaurants will donate a portion of their receipts each Thursday of this month to the Haven Hills shelter for victims of domestic violence. The restaurants will be donating about 10% of their receipts, shelter officials said. The program, called Let's EAT (End Abuse Today), will collect money from nine restaurants to help fund the shelter's counseling and transitional housing programs. The nonprofit group, established in 1977, relies on donations to keep its programs running.

Residents of the Orange Coast Interfaith Shelter were pleased by a visit Wednesday from local business people and others who donated $10,000 each to sponsor a family's living quarters. Five of the shelter's 18 bedrooms for families have been supported for a year, thanks to a new "adopt-a-unit" fund-raising project. At a breakfast Wednesday, representatives of Taco Bell Corp., ITT Federal Bank, Cerplex Inc. and St.

A Los Angeles County women's shelter listed in tax forms filed by the Nicole Brown Charitable Foundation as having received a $2,000 grant in 1995 never got the money, according to the director of the program that serves abused women. Angel Step Inn program director Patricia King said the shelter has never applied for a grant but did receive an unsolicited $25 check last Christmas.

The Huntington Youth Shelter, which helps runaway and abused children, will receive more than $300,000 in federal funds to support its services, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) announced Tuesday. The Health and Human Services grant will provide $105,000 annually for three years. "One hundred and five thousand of our tax dollars are being returned to us today," said Rohrabacher, flanked by center employees, volunteers and board members.

Orange County supervisors on Tuesday approved spending $170,000 to provide food and shelter for at least 250 homeless people this winter at two National Guard armories. Supervisors hope that with additional state and federal funding, the program will be able to shelter the homeless for 120 days, beginning in December. In past years, the county scrambled to keep the shelters open as long as possible.

The men straggle into the small Eastside church as the evening sun dips behind the downtown skyscrapers. Exhausted and dirty, they take turns showering in the adjacent office bathroom, then wait quietly on wooden benches outside the church for dinner. When darkness falls, they unroll their sleeping bags on the church pews and bed down for the night--if not comfortably, at least safe from the perils of street life.

Some of the funniest women in Los Angeles are taking the stage on Sunday afternoons this month to raise money for domestic-violence shelters and programs established by the Theatre of Hope for Abused Women. Heidi Joyce, creator and host of "Stand Up Against Domestic Violence," said she initiated the semiannual, all-female stand-up comedy show last year to raise awareness of domestic violence and the emotional devastation it causes.

The Huntington Youth Shelter, which helps runaway and abused children, will receive more than $300,000 in federal funds to support its services, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) announced Tuesday. The Health and Human Services grant will provide $105,000 annually for three years. "One hundred and five thousand of our tax dollars are being returned to us today," said Rohrabacher, flanked by center employees, volunteers and board members.

There's an art to raising money for the homeless on the highly competitive streets of Los Angeles' skid row. Some shelters ask for contributions through ads in newspapers and on billboards. Others rely on direct-mail appeals or on solicitations in corporate boardrooms. And now there's art--the oil painting kind.

Several restaurants will donate a portion of their receipts each Thursday of this month to the Haven Hills shelter for victims of domestic violence. The restaurants will be donating about 10% of their receipts, shelter officials said. The program, called Let's EAT (End Abuse Today), will collect money from nine restaurants to help fund the shelter's counseling and transitional housing programs. The nonprofit group, established in 1977, relies on donations to keep its programs running.

A Los Angeles City Council panel Monday adopted a plan to spend $30,000, originally allocated to shelter homeless people in the San Fernando Valley, on similar services in the downtown Skid Row area. But reallocation of the funds, recommended by the Community Redevelopment and Housing Committee, will not diminish the Valley program to shelter the homeless in cold and wet weather, said Nancy Bianconi, an executive at L. A. Family Housing Corp.

Spurred to action by the intense publicity surrounding the O.J. Simpson case, Los Angeles city and county governments created panels Tuesday to grapple with the problem of domestic violence and agreed to spend $6.1 million on shelters for abuse victims. Acknowledging a significant shortage of shelters for domestic violence victims, the City Council agreed to spend $5 million a year to develop such havens and the County Board of Supervisors approved spending $1.

Several local restaurants will donate a portion of their receipts each Thursday of this month to the Haven Hills shelter for victims of domestic violence. The restaurants will be donating about 10% of their receipts, shelter officials said. The program, called Let's EAT (End Abuse Today), will collect money from nine restaurants to help fund the shelter's counseling and transitional housing programs.

County officials have presented a Huntington Beach youth shelter with a $10,000 grant that will be used to help troubled teen-agers gain their independence. The Huntington Youth Shelter is an 18-bed residential care facility that has provided assistance to 92 runaways, as well as neglected and abused children, since it opened in January. County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder presented the shelter with a $10,000 check Saturday during a reception.