Lancaster Pushes to Reuse Abandoned Hospital For Homeless Shelter

In the Antelope Valley, an old hospital sits deserted, empty since 2008.

Now, a local nonprofit is trying to get the county to open it up as a shelter for the homeless, in a move they say will save lives.

“It was horrible. I hit rock bottom,” said Greg Fish, who spent time on the streets while homeless, and now interns with the nonprofit behind the push.

Fish said he knows all too well what being homeless in the Antelope Valley is like.

"During the winter shelter I think we had close to five homeless people die because of the cold. So, it gets bad, you know what I mean?" Fish said.

With the upcoming winter, there's added concern as the single-digit weather approaches.

"If you don't get into a car, if you don't get into a shed, you don't go into an abandoned building, you die. It's that cold here," said Marvin Crist, vice-mayor of Lancaster.

That's why the city of Lancaster is pressuring LA County supervisors to turn over the keys to an abandoned hospital, right next door to Mira Loma State Prison.

"It's a closed facility, it's a facility that continues to rot,” Crist said. “All we want to do is open it and we'll take care of the rest."

Crist said the cost to the county would be zero, everything provided by local nonprofits.

"(We’ll) provide the staff, we'll provide the furniture, we'll provide everything that goes inside it,” Crist said. “All we want you to do is open the doors."

But Lancaster will also continue to push for a greater percentage of the county’s annual budget allocation for coping with homeless populations.

Lancaster officials said it only gets 2 percent of federal funds to run its shelter when it has 12 percent of the county's population. Compare that to downtown LA's 17 percent population getting 42 percent of the funds.

It's another step city officials hope county supervisors will correct in a special meeting Monday.

For his part, Steve Baker, executive director of Grace Resources, said the property would be a godsend. He said the outer buildings could be ready for this winter, and a larger 121,000-square-foot building by the spring.

"It's pretty desperate because we're limited to 100 beds, 110 if we really stretch it at the shelter we have now," Baker said.

The building would give the Antelope Valley three times as much room for its homeless population than it currently has available, an idea not lost on those who need it most.

"Yeah, it's important because everyone who wants to get in,” said Greg Fish, “will get in."