Mission to Be Investigated Over Sanitation and Permit

The City of Angels Mission, under attack by some social service professionals for operating a “dangerous” shelter for the homeless, will be investigated for complaints about unsanitary conditions and serving food when not allowed, a county official said Thursday.

In addition, a city official said the mission has been operating illegally at its building at 12th Avenue and Broadway in downtown San Diego because its sponsors failed to obtain a “conditional-use” permit, as zoning laws require.

Ray Redman, assistant chief of the county health department’s urban planning department, said his office will investigate the shelter because of complaints about odors in the building and the lack of ventilation and lighting. He also said his office has received reports that the mission staff has served food, although the shelter has failed to obtain a county health permit to do so.

“We are looking into it right now,” Redman said. “We have gotten calls indicating that food was being served and about the overall sanitary conditions.”

Meanwhile, Mark Cano, an assistant planner with the City of San Diego planning department, said Thursday that neither the City of Angels nor Seymour Reichbart, who owns the building that houses the shelter, had applied for a conditional-use permit.

A conditional-use permit is required any time a building owner plans to change the way his building is being used. The mission is operating a homeless shelter in what was once an office building, and Cano said that change would require a permit.

Reichbart said that the City of Angels did receive an order from the city’s zoning department to obtain the permit or vacate the building. He said mission staff members gave him the order Thursday.

If the shelter failed to pass a county investigation or obtain the required city permit, it could be asked to leave the building by government officials. But that prospect may be more academic than real, because the shelter is scheduled to stay open only a few more weeks.

The shelter has experienced problems ever since it began providing overnight facilities for the homeless at 12th and Broadway on Nov. 12. Reichbart gave the City of Angels temporary use of his building after he saw a television show about the plight of the homeless in San Diego.

Reichbart subsequently asked the mission to leave his building, because it attracted as many as 350 people a night, causing wear on the structure. But he changed his mind Tuesday, and granted the mission a reprieve to operate until Dec. 31 if it limited the number of transients to 250 a night.

Some members of the social service establishment have said they don’t think the mission should be open at all. Frank Landerville, director of the mayor’s Regional Task Force on the Homeless, has said he considers the mission “dangerous” because its directors and staff are inexperienced. Police say they receive more calls to break up fights and handle drunks from the mission than from other homeless shelters.

Shelters for the homeless must adhere to municipal codes and requirements, such as fire and safety standards, but they are not subject to licensing by the state, said Lola Hobbs, the county’s coordinator of programs for the homeless.

Hobbs said there is no agency to handle complaints about homeless shelters, except for zoning boards.

Landerville said that, until now, there has been no need to regulate shelters for the homeless like hospitals, nursing homes and other care facilities.

“In the past these services have been given by established agencies,” Landerville said. “They have delivered services that have been proven over a long period of time. People tend to underestimate what it takes to run something like a shelter.

“Right now it takes more to open up a small appliance or repair shop than to open a shelter. On the one hand, you are talking about the ability to repair a toaster. On the other, you are talking about 300 people whose health and safety may be at risk.”

Eric Dierker, attorney for City of Angels, said Thursday that many of the homeless sleep on the floor on makeshift beds. Reichbart said there are no showers.

Dierker, who gives legal advice to many of the city’s homeless, said that he has had clients refuse to stay in the City of Angels shelter.

“I have to admit that it is not a nice place,” Dierker said. “If I were a street person I might rather be on the streets.”

Redman said Thursday that the county health department has received anonymous phone calls complaining about poor conditions at the mission.

Dierker said he did not believe that one of the complaints, serving food at the shelter without county approval, was still true. He said that, at one point in the past, food had been brought in from another mission location and served to the staff members of the Broadway shelter.

“When I found out what was going on, I went right over and told them they had to stop,” Dierker said. “Right now absolutely no food is being served.”