City of Angels : Shelter Called More of a Curse Than a Blessing

The night that the City of Angels Mission won a reprieve to keep its temporary shelter for the homeless open, San Diego police received eight calls to break up fights and handle drunks there--a rash of incidents that underscores complaints that the mission is a “dangerous” place.

The mission and its shelter, on 12th Avenue at Broadway, were supposed to be evicted on Tuesday but its landlord granted a reprieve and said it could stay until Dec. 31.

The City of Angels was given temporary use of the building as a shelter by the owner, Seymour Reichbart, after he saw a television show on homeless people in San Diego. The shelter opened Nov. 12. Reichbart subsequently asked the mission to leave because it attracted too many people, but he changed his mind Tuesday and granted the extension.

However, several social service professionals say it would have been better if Reichbart had closed the mission. They say the mission, which lacks experience at providing overnight facilities to the homeless, is more of a curse than a blessing.

“It would be better that a shelter like this did not open, even if the beds (for the homeless) are not there,” said Frank Landerville, director of the mayor’s Regional Task Force on the Homeless.

“I don’t approve of simply opening a shelter on a fly-by-night basis.

“I don’t consider that the City of Angels knows what they are doing. I was concerned from the start that there would be trouble, and that the victims would be the homeless. . . . It is dangerous to put that many people into a relatively unsupervised facility.”

Landerville said his concerns heightened when he toured the shelter two weeks ago and was shown a “bag of weapons” collected by the mission’s security force. He was also critical of the mission’s all-volunteer staff, which he said was composed of “street people.”

Landerville’s criticisms were echoed by the Rev. Dale Hardy of the San Diego Rescue Mission. Hardy said he would not recommend that the homeless use the City of Angels shelter.

“I don’t have a good feeling about them,” Hardy said. “I’m not speaking about the City of Angels now, but I have seen people start up operations with an opportunistic viewpoint. I would want to see some sort of financial accountability for the funds they are getting for the homeless.”

Police dispatcher Monica Munoz reported that the department received eight calls about drunkenness and fighting at the mission Tuesday night.

“There are not that many every night, but normally we receive more calls from them than the other shelters,” she said.

The Rev. Terrell Garrett, director of the shelter, said he believes criticism of the temporary shelter is unjustified.

“I have only met Mr. Landerville once and he did not indicate to me that there were problems,” Garrett said. “There may be a bit of jealousy involved. We are out on the street trying to do something about the problem, instead of just studying it.”

Garrett said about 30 volunteers, “mostly from the streets,” were used to staff the shelter and it was their policy to ask people staying at the shelter to turn in their weapons for the night.

“We ask if they have these things on them, but if they say no, what can we do?” he said. “There is no shelter that I know of who doesn’t have problems with violence of some sort, but it is mostly drunkenness and fighting.”

Garrett and Eric Dierker, attorney for the mission, said the temporary shelter has accommodated as many as 300 of San Diego’s homeless a night.

Reichbart, however, said he believes that that number is excessive and asked in granting the extension that the mission set a nightly limit of 250.

Reichbart, who intends to turn the building into a community center for the poor, said he did not want to comment on any criticism made of the mission. He added that the City of Angels is new to the San Diego area and is a “relatively unknown entity.”

“I married the City of Angels without knowing who I was marrying,” he said. “I will be glad when the Dec. 31 termination date rolls around.”

Garrett said his organization is “the first to admit that we are new at this. But we have always been very open and have invited any professional help.” He said City of Angels, which originated in Los Angeles, relocated to San Diego early last summer and has served meals since October. The group serves meal at 1447 Market St.

Jeanne Dorsey, the resident assistant of the YWCA’s shelter for women, said it was unfair to knock the City of Angels mission because it is a young organization and “still learning.”

But Landerville and others disagreed. He said care of the homeless should be left to more established groups, such as the YWCA, St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Rescue Mission and the Salvation Army.

“There is a definite need for emergency beds, but they need to be offered by competent agencies,” he said.