Pasadena Hopes to Expand Capacity at Bad Weather Shelter

During an update on the City’s Bad Weather Shelter on Wednesday, Housing Director Bill Huang said the City plans to add to the capacity of the Bad Weather shelter to accommodate up to 70 individuals.

Huang presented the update to the Public Safety Committee. The shelter is currently set up to serve 50 single adults this year.

“We hope to and intend to and have additional capital improvements made to the Trinity Lutheran gymnasium and Kitchen that would allow the capacity next year to go up to 70 individuals,” Huang said.

The City Council approved the Bad Weather shelter this year and requested that the Housing Department come back Midseason and present a report on its impacts.

The shelter is currently open from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. on nights when there is a 40% chance of rain, or the temperature is 40 degrees or below. However, it can open in the event of floods or high winds. It can also be opened on nights when the housing director, city manager, and fire chief agree. The improvements, which will be funded through capital funding, include fire safety-related improvements. They will begin after the bad weather season ends in April.

“So they’ll be ready next season. Hopefully, they will be ready at a higher capacity.”

Families with minor children are not allowed to stay at the shelter and instead are given motel vouchers.

Councilmembers Tyron Hampton and Justin Jones inquired about the practice of opening the shelter at 40 degrees and wondered if 50 degrees would work better.

Once the shelter reaches capacity, people are turned away. So far only five people have been turned away this season, according to reported information.

But the Housing Department will now look at new strategies.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Friends In Deed operated Pasadena’s seasonal winter shelter (the Bad Weather Shelter) for over 30 years out of a local church gym.

After over three decades, Friends In Deed lost its long-time lease of the church gym in March 2020.

The loss of that shelter prompted a years-long search for a replacement.

While the exact number of people without homes on any given night fluctuates, 556 people were unhoused on the night of the 2023 Homeless Count, a 9% increase over 2022.

In January, volunteers performed the most recent homeless count. The results will be available later this year.

The City approved the shelter earlier this year, but at that time nearby residents said they did not want the shelter in their neighborhood.

In February, Councilmember Jessica Rivas met with residents in the area who expressed concerns about the shelter.

According to Huang, most of the concerns expressed at the meeting were not directly related to the bad weather shelter. However, residents were concerned about an increased presence of people experiencing homelessness both on public and private property.

Over the past several years, before the Bad Weather shelter was established, there’s been a general increase in crime vandalism as well as trash in the neighborhood, and gang presence also in the neighborhood, all of which were not directly related to the shelter. But now the concern is that the shelter draws unsafe individuals to their neighborhood.

In response to their concerns, the City’s Hope Team is providing extra service in the area surrounding the shelter. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s version of the Hope team called the Homeless Outreach Services Team (HOST) is also providing additional service at the Lake Avenue Transit Center, which is an area where many of the residents were concerned due to the concentration of people experiencing homelessness there.

Metro cleaning crews are also providing additional cleaning at the Lake Avenue Station.

Public Works has also increased street bulky pickup to three days a week. They are no longer waiting to be called. The department patrols three days a week to pick up trash that has been left out on the public way. They also have increased street sweeping in the area for three days per week.