Navy Hospital Sought as Home for Homeless : ‘We Feel . . . Human Beings Are a Lot More Important Than a Park’--Robert McElroy

Waving dozens of signs about the problems of poverty and police mistreatment, more than 250 street people packed the San Diego City Council chambers Monday to complain about their plight and demand the use of the old Navy Hospital in Balboa Park for emergency shelter.

It was the second time this month that a group of the homeless walked into City Hall to make the demand. On Jan. 12, a small group made a formal request for use of the hospital. A City Council committee on Wednesday will study eventual uses of the hospital compound.

Monday’s crowd, however, was much bigger and more unruly than its predecessor, and Mayor Maureen O’Connor was forced to resort to her gavel several times to restore order. The noisiest exchange came when the crowd hooted at O’Connor after she suggested that all those interested in job assistance go to her office and give their addresses to her aides.

“The problem is, they’re on the streets,” responded Robert A. McElroy, who organized the show of force by the homeless.

“They have no place to take showers. You notice it smells real nice in here,” McElroy added, referring to the odors that wafted through the council chambers under the hot television lights. “We have the ultimate in cologne on.”

Monday’s visit marked what could be a growing political militancy by San Diego’s homeless, who are following the lead of street people nationwide in speaking out for shelter.

Recently, an army of homeless marched into Los Angeles City Hall after officials, spurred by the deaths of several street people during a cold snap, threw open part of the municipal building as a temporary shelter.

In San Diego, street people and their organizers are angling to take over the old Navy Hospital for shelter. Forty-two hospital buildings on 34.5 acres will revert to city ownership in mid-1988, when the Navy moves into its new hospital compound in Florida Canyon.

Spokesmen for the homeless argue that the old hospital’s beds, showers and kitchen facilities make it an ideal choice for a shelter. Statistics compiled last year show that, on any given night, there are 743 beds in local shelters for the estimated 5,000 homeless in San Diego County.

But the city attorney’s office says there is no way the city can legally add the old Navy Hospital to the list of shelters because it is dedicated park land and, thus, cannot be used for residential purposes. The only way to change the park designation is through a two-thirds vote of the electorate, according to the office.

Yet those legal fine points meant little to the crowd of homeless that filed into City Hall Monday.

McElroy, a clean-cut, 31-year-old City College teacher, said before the council meeting that he had spent the last six days talking to transients to make sure they would show up. He said he hoped that the turnout, which spilled out into the hallway outside the council chambers, would convince the city to fund his new, nonprofit relief organization for the homeless, the “Alpha Project.”

Many of the transients deposited soiled knapsacks, bed rolls and satchels inside the chamber doors. Once seated, they waved crude cardboard signs proclaiming “Stop Police Harassment of Homeless and Street People Now” and “Give Us Freedom From Poverty Now.”

Before she allowed McElroy to address the council, O’Connor told the group that she knew some of them from serving food to the street people with the Catholic Workers. O’Connor said she had just returned from a trip to Washington, where she lobbied the county’s congressional delegation for help with the homeless issue, and met with members of a national task force hoping to come up with $500 million for street people. During her visit, she met with national homeless activist Mitch Snyder and discussed the plight of the poor.

“I really think this council understands your problem,” O’Connor said. “We’re trying to work to help solve the problem. And I would appreciate it if you understand that we’re trying to help you.”

McElroy told O’Connor that the people in the audience “heard this before” and he called on the council to take immediate action. He said many of the homeless are skilled laborers who are willing to work if given a break.

“We all have homes that we stay in,” he said. “Nice warm homes. Nice warm offices. Big fat refrigerators. These people are out on the streets and they have no hope.”

McElroy asked council members to consider using the Navy Hospital as a shelter instead of converting it into a park.

“We feel people, these people, human beings are a lot more important than a park,” he said. “We could use that facility, and we could make it a model facility that the rest of the United States could follow.”

He also complained that transients get “rolled” two or three times a week, and their identification cards are stolen. Without identification, they are not allowed to take showers at social service agencies, he said.

McElroy also asked O’Connor and her colleagues to instruct police to “back off” in their dealings with the homeless.

“Can we talk to the Police Department and have them not write these guys up every night, because they don’t have a place to stay and they’re on the streets?” McElroy said. “These guys are being harassed, ticketed two or three times a day.”

In response to McElroy’s complaints, O’Connor later instructed City Manager John Lockwood to look into the allegations against police.

The council also voted later in the day to instruct Lockwood’s office to submit a “homeless assistance plan” to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, an action that had been placed on the docket before McElroy and his group made their appearance.

The assistance plan would allow San Diego to receive $36,000 in federal funds. City officials say they will use the money to set up a program with local churches to increase the number of beds for the homeless.

After his appearance Monday, McElroy said he received no firm commitments from the mayor’s office. He said one of her aides asked him to respond with more information about the Alpha Project, however.

Paul Downey, O’Connor’s press secretary, said that 53 transients took O’Connor up on her offer and signed up for help in finding employment. Their names will now be forwarded to the Regional Employment Training Consortium, which trains and places people into jobs, said Downey.

He said O’Connor is scheduled to return to Washington on Thursday to testify on proposed legislation to benefit the homeless. One such bill pending in Congress would allow charitable groups to lease designated federal property for $1 a year to provide shelter for the homeless, he said.