Winter shelter could be out

Program Manager Monica Gillon acknowledged that the operators should have been more upfront with the community with some of the unplanned problems that can arise from a winter shelter, but agreed that talks among the various stakeholders should occur before their contract is up mid-March.

“We’re just trying to hold it in until March 15,” she said, referring to the shelter’s expiration date.

Still, given the thousands of people served by the shelter since December, homeless service providers and police officials have said the number of incidents have been relatively few.

Glendale officials met Forbes’ warning with offers to mediate possible public education strategies between area homeless services providers and to assist in developing solutions for a Burbank-based shelter.

Burbank Mayor Dave Golonski said that despite the community complaints, he was confident an agreement could be reached on how to adequately address neighborhood concerns.

A joint public meeting with city officials and EIMAGO representatives to gather input on how to improve operations is tentatively scheduled for March.

“Burbank tries to solve problems, and you don’t have winter shelter programs without having problems,” Golonski said. Still, “We need the people who operate the shelter to take our concerns seriously and run the shelter as it was proposed.”

 JASON WELLS covers City Hall. He may be reached at (818) 637-3235 or by e-mail at jason.wells@latimes.com.