Councilmember wants second homeless shelter on Los Feliz-Silver Lake border

Los Angeles City Councilmember David Ryu wants to bring a homeless shelter to a section of Riverside Drive at the Silver Lake and Los Feliz border, just down the street from another site where a shelter is planned.

In a motion introduced last week, Ryu said that the owner of the property at 3061 Riverside Drive expressed interest in leasing the site to the city for use as bridge housing, which offers temporary housing and services for homeless Angelenos.

Twenty-six shelters are either in the works or have opened across the city as part of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Bridge Home program, which launched in April 2018. This would be the fourth in Ryu’s district.

“I’m encouraged to see property owners stepping up and getting involved,” Ryu said in a statement. “Homelessness is a crisis, and we need every available resource to bring hope and housing to our neighbors suffering on the street.”

The plan needs approval from committees and the full City Council.

The property owner is listed on public records as L and R Construction Inc., a company founded by brothers and native Angelenos Larry and Ralph Cimmarusti of Cimmarusti Holdings. (The Cimmarustis are also the owners of the Downtown-adjacent Burger King site on Grand and Cesar Chavez ,where plans for redevelopment have been kicking around for more than a decade.)

If Ryu’s motion were approved, the City Council would have the city’s homeless coordinator work with the county to identify a variety of funding sources for the project. The city would also move ahead with neighborhood outreach.

The Riverside Drive property, currently occupied by a one-story office building and its parking lot, is about a quarter mile away from another proposed shelter set to rise on a city-owned lot near the William Mulholland Memorial Fountain on Riverside Drive.

Each councilmember has also pledged to open 222 permanent supportive housing units in their districts. Councilmember Jose Huizar has the most approved to date—912 units. Councilmember Bob Blumenfield has the least, with just 54 approved so far. Ryu has 167 units approved—75 percent of the goal.