Shelter for Homeless Gets Hope : Church Offered to Group Rejected by Panel in Anaheim

A church in the city of Orange on Thursday offered a shelter for the homeless after hearing that Anaheim officials refused to allow an emergency shelter in that city.

Church officials contacted Christian Temporary Housing Facilities Inc., which had sought the Anaheim site, and said they may be able to offer a building equipped with 48 beds, a kitchen, a fireplace and other amenities, said Michael Elias, the group’s executive director.

“The beds are already there. It’s got showers, everything. So that’s really exciting,” Elias said.

He would not disclose the church’s location, he said, because it might jeopardize the deal.

Request Refused

Anaheim’s Planning Commission refused a request for a 20-bed emergency shelter in an Anaheim church after residents at the meeting expressed fear about their children’s safety.

The church in Orange, Elias said, is not in a residential neighborhood, as is the Anaheim Seventh-day Adventist Church at 900 S. Sunkist St.

Commission Chairwoman Charlene LaClaire pledged to help the group find a spot in Anaheim, and Elias said he still intends to take her up on the promise.

“We need a shelter in Anaheim,” he said. He estimated that there are 5,000 homeless and destitute people in Anaheim.

Elias had said he would not appeal the commission’s decision, but on Thursday he said he may change his mind because of the number of phone calls his group received in support of the program. The group has 22 days from Wednesday to ask the City Council to overturn the commission’s decision.

The Anaheim shelter would offer overnight stays up to five days. A maximum 60-day stay is offered at another shelter in Orange run by Christian Temporary Housing Facilities.

Elias noted the irony of the commission’s decision, coming three days after millions of people linked hands across the United States to raise money for the poor and homeless.