South Bay: Cold Weather Shelters Open For Homeless Friday

TORRANCE, CA — With rain and cold temperatures forecast beginning Friday, Los Angeles County officials will open five winter shelters for people experiencing homelessness, including a location in Torrance.

The Weather-Activated Shelter Program sites will open beginning at 11 a.m. through 7 a.m. Jan. 30, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

"This program operates to protect individuals from the rain and cold weather to avoid conditions such as hypothermia, pneumonia and other conditions caused by cold temperatures," according to the LAHSA website.

The following sites are opening:

• Alondra Park, 3535 Redondo Beach Blvd., Torrance
• Loma Alta Park, 3300 N. Lincoln Ave., Altadena
• Mary Bethune Park, 1244 E. 61st., Los Angeles
• Enterprise Park, 13055 Clovis St., Los Angeles
• Leon H. Washington Park, 8908 Maie Ave., Los Angeles

Sites may activate if there are two consecutive days where daytime high temperatures are below 50 degrees or nighttime lows are below 40 degrees or there are one or more consecutive days of heavy rainfall, according to the LAHSA.

This week, LAHSA also opened a winter shelter in Venice at Oakwood Recreation Center in Venice. The co-ed shelter at 767 California Ave. will open for winter and operates through March 31, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. The agency opens additional shelters during winter to protect unhoused Angelenos from the cold and wet season.

The shelter's hotline can be reached at 323-909-5778, and the general Winter Shelter Hotline can be reached 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 1- 800-548-6047.

A list of LAHSA's winter shelters can be found in English at https://bit.ly/3bXwLe1 and in Spanish at https://bit.ly/3bS6ePe.

- City News Service and Patch Editor Nicole Charky contributed to this report.