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'I was flooded out': LA shelters near capacity as the unhoused seek refuge from storm

Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times on

Published in Weather News

Rain poured into Toni Willis' small tent Monday night as a historic storm drenched Southern California, soaking her belongings and leaving her cold, wet and miserable.

That same night, outreach workers stopped by her tent at Century Boulevard and Main Street, offering her a bed at a nearby winter shelter.

Smoking a cigarette outside the shelter at the South Los Angeles Sports Activity Center on Tuesday, with rain still coming down, she said she was grateful.

"It's much better now," said Willis, 43. "I'm able to sleep."

The storm, which has dumped rain almost nonstop since Sunday, inundating roads and causing devastating mudslides, has been brutal for the more than 75,000 unhoused people in L.A. County.

From November to March, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority opens additional shelters on top of the 25,000 temporary beds it operates year-round. This year, there are 388 regular winter shelter beds, plus six additional shelters with more than 340 beds.

 

As of Tuesday afternoon, LAHSA said nearly all of its winter shelters were at capacity, with only a shelter in Duarte having 72 empty beds.

While some homeless people prefer to brave the elements in their own tents, the prolonged, severe soaking proved too much for those like Willis who accepted a bed indoors.

In Long Beach, which operates its own emergency shelters, city officials said they were also at capacity and, much like the county, were using hotel vouchers to get people indoors.

At a Tuesday morning news conference, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass responded to questions about whether the city had provided enough shelter for its unhoused population.

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