During the Christmas season, Ashlee Gibson and her boyfriend bought about 20 blankets from the store and distributed them to homeless people up and down Ventura and Van Nuys boulevards.

And sometimes when the Sherman Oaks resident sees someone who seems to need it, she gives them the food that she’d only just purchased for herself.

Auto Shop owner Ben Koester displays the site with 1,026 signatures opposing the proposed homeless shelter at a location across the street from his auto shop business in Sherman Oaks on Friday, August 24, 2018. (Photo by Dan Watson)

Auto shop owner Ben Koester overlooks his body shop business of 20 years. In the distance is the parking lot location of the proposed homeless shelter. Koester holds a printout of a web site with 1,026 signatures opposing the proposed homeless shelter which is across the street from his auto shop business in Sherman Oaks on Friday, August 24, 2018. (Photo by Dan Watson)

Sound The gallery will resume in seconds

Auto Shop owner Ben Koester stands in the parking lot of the proposed homeless shelter which stands across the street from his auto shop business in Sherman Oaks on Friday, August 24, 2018. (Photo by Dan Watson)



But the 32-year-old office manager of an auto body repair shop on Dickens Street said that lately, she has grown afraid of walking down her own street, because of the erratic behavior of some of the homeless people.

“I’ve had so many weird things happen to me,” she said.

She was followed and approached aggressively by a woman, who tried to grab her purse. And Gibson, who is black, said that a woman came into a restaurant and shouted, “How many ‘n’ words do I have to kill to get a slice of pizza?”

So when she read a media report that a city-owned parking lot, 15314 W. Dickens St., just across from the auto body shop was being considered as a site for homeless housing, she worked with her boss to set up a petition on Change.org to oppose the idea. They had collected more than 1,000 signatures by late Friday, a week after it was posted.

“We’re so concerned with other people, and it might sound selfish to say, but what about me?” she said. “Do I have to have something happen, where I actually get hit by somebody, or my purse is actually snatched or stolen, for somebody to care about what happens to me?”

Gibson said she believes in building more housing for people who are homeless. She says she has friends who have worked at permanent supportive housing buildings, the kind that will get built with the help of the $1.2 billion bond measure, Proposition HHH.

But the parking lot right across from her workplace, Koester Automotive and Collision Center, and just down the street from her home, is not the place. She also points to the nearby nursery and elementary school as reasons this location is a bad idea.

The parking lot site, as well as an adjacent one owned by Caltrans, was one of two sites that was picked out by the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association and the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council, as potential locations for homeless housing. The Army Reserve site just down the street, at 5161 Sepulveda Blvd., was also flagged for a potential a emergency homeless housing that would shelter people temporarily.

Eight public meetings had been held, and the two sites were whittled down from more than a dozen locations, the association’s members said.

But both Gibson and her employer, Ben Koester, say they and other businesses in their neighborhood did not learn about the meetings and selection process until they had learned about the two sites, after the fact, on social media and in a Los Angeles Daily News article about a motion that Councilman David Ryu introduced calling for the Dickens parking lot site and the Army Reserve location to be studied.

RELATED STORY: LA councilman eyeing possible homeless housing in Sherman Oaks

“From just talking to the business owners, people are seriously upset because they had no idea,” Gibson said. “Six people decided for a whole entire community.”

Jeff Kalban, a neighborhood council person who was quoted in Ryu’s news release, did not respond to emails requesting an interview. There was also no response to a voice mail left with the neighborhood council, which is a citizen panel that advises city leaders.

In response to efforts by the Daily News to conduct an interview with one of its members, the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association issued a written statement saying that they have reached out to Ryu’s office to ask that he set up a meeting “with representatives of homeless agencies, the City Attorney’s office and himself to explain in a fact-driven meeting about these sites and truths about homelessness in particular.”

“We suggested to the council member’s office that this meeting occur within the next two weeks,” the statement said. “This meeting must include members of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association Board and members of the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council Board, as well as any of the stakeholders concerned about this issue. Thank you all for your interest in this, we look forward to a productive, informative meeting.”

Ryu also issued a letter, addressed to “neighbors,” dated Aug. 10 saying that the city is “very early in this process for these two possible sites.”

He also said the “process” for the Dickens Street site where the permanent housing site might go could “take years” and there will be several opportunities for the public to weigh in.

But Koester and Gibson say that they do not think the site was ever a good location to begin with. They are near one of the busiest intersections in Los Angeles – Sepulveda and Ventura boulevards.

“Parking is a big issue here in Sherman Oaks,” Koester said. “Huge, big, big problem. If there is any parking in Sherman Oaks, I’m going to think it’s this, in this area, and that’s going to be taken away too.”

Koester, who set up his auto body shop two decades ago, said he is concerned about what having a homeless housing nearby would do to his business. He believes more homeless people will come to the area, and that may drive away customers.

Koester said that he is also afraid that what happened to four body shops several years ago, when a new on-ramp was built, could be happening again. The owners of those shops learned last minute about the plans, when “they had no choice,” he said.

Those are no longer there.

“That is my biggest fear,” he said. While many others might worry about having homeless housing or shelters near their homes, he said that his business is where he earns the money to take care of his family.

“This is my house, this is where I live, this is my baby,” he said, pointing to his body shop.

He said he is a “novice” when it comes to what to expect from a homeless housing project. “They would have to explain to me what’s going on,” he said.

“I just know cars,” he said. “My clients, my customers, they keep me busy all day long, and I’m okay … I enjoy taking care of customers. I love looking at their face when we’re done with the car … that’s my passion.”