Homeless shelter would pop up next to Mulholland Memorial in Los Feliz

Plans for a 100-bed homeless shelter on Riverside Drive in Los Feliz are chugging along.

The city’s recreation and parks commission endorsed plans for the emergency shelter today. It would take the form of a 10,800 square-foot “membrane structure” and would sprout up on a surface parking lot just south of the William Mulholland Memorial at the foot of Griffith Park.

“By opening up this lot to bridge housing, we will not only meet the crisis of our time, but we will also help build community around this shared purpose of ending homelessness,” Los Angeles City Councilmember David Ryu, who represents the area, said in a statement.

Accompanying the beds would be a hygiene trailer, a storage area with bins, seven toilets and seven showers, a pet area, an elevated deck, and open space. The shelter would operate for up to three years.

Ryu plans to ask for $4.6 million to fund construction of the project through the mayor’s “bridge home” program. Under the program, the mayor has set aside $20 million for emergency shelters.

According to the mayor’s office, the Riverside project is one 26 bridge shelters in development citywide, including three others in Ryu’s district.

From Koreatown to Sherman Oaks, some shelter plans have met fierce resistance from neighbors, but Ryu says the Riverside project has the support of the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council, Atwater Village Neighborhood Council, and Friends of Griffith Park.