Highland Park Church Won't Lose Funding After All For Offering Its Pews To Homeless To Sleep
HIGHLAND PARK (CBSLA.com) — A Highland Park church that opens its pews to the homeless to sleep on during the cold, winter months will continue to receive funding.
Fr. Clarke Prescott of All Saints Episcopal Church told Peter Daut of CBS2 News he became alarmed after learning the emergency cold shelter would no longer qualify to receive $75,000 in city funding after a recent inspection.
The inspection by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority determined that the pews are too narrow and not safe for sleeping.
The church was told their funding would be cut if they continued to use the pews as beds.
"I thought that was ridiculous," Prescott said. "We have a facility, but we don't have a great deal of money so it stretches our financial resources to pay for heating at night."
The shelter is the only one in northeast L.A. opened during the winter months and relies heavily on donations.
The church took its case to City Hall and CBS2 took the shelter's concerns to City Councilman Gil Cedillo.
And on Wednesday night, the city changed its stance, saying the shelter will get funded after all.
"There are rules and then there is this reality that people will be sleeping out in the cold streets and we want to avoid that so sometimes we have a flexibility," Cedillo said.
"I think this is really a wonderful example of the media educating people and kind of nudging our politicians along," Prescott said.
