Low-Income Residents Evicted From LA Mission Hollywood Building

HOLLYWOOD (CBSLA.com) — Dozens of low-income residents are being evicted from the Los Angeles Mission's apartment building, as the Christian Ministry is following through on an agreement to sell its Hollywood site in March.

Residents say they've been told they need to be out of the building, located on Bronson Ave. and Sunset Blvd., by Monday.

People who had previously been homeless called the building home over the past 20 years. It also existed as a transition point for people moving out of the mission, getting clean and getting back on their feet.

"I'm going to miss this place, it's been good to me," LA Mission client Maggie Benley said.

Mission president Herb Smith says the building is too far from the Mission's Skid Row location, where Branson residents still need to go for classes and services.

"It has not met the expectations that we had," Smith said. "The goal has never been to keep them in the building. It has been to move them into permanent housing."

Smith says that of 48 adults and six children at the Branson location, five adults and those six children still have not found permanent housing.

"I don't know right now where I'm going, but I can't blame them for that," client Valerie Johnson said.

Mission leaders say they'll help anyone to get housing, even if it means returning to the Mission temporarily.