Santa Ana Council Rejects Effort to Relocate Rescue Mission

The Santa Ana City Council voted 4 to 3 Monday night to reject an effort by residents to force the relocation of the Orange County Rescue Mission.

In emotional testimony before the vote, residents of the area near the mission told the council the facility is a source of crime and visual blight and should be shut down. But Deputy Police Chief Eugene Hansen said there is no evidence that the mission has caused any problems since it moved to its present location in 1984.

Voting against moving the mission again were Mayor Dan Young, Vice Mayor Patricia A. McGuigan and Council members Ron May and Wilson B. Hart. Voting for relocating it again were Council members Dan Griset, John Acosta and Miguel Pulido.

Karol Vanzant, who owns an auto parts store on 1st Street, told the council that the presence of transients has chased customers away and forced him to hire a security guard.

“The area has deteriorated dramatically. By deteriorated, I mean we have prostitution, we have bums and panhandlers. We have every type of illegal activity you can name,” Vanzant said.

But Hansen said his department “cannot attribute the problems to the rescue mission.”

Mission attorney Thomas Whaling said he understands the community’s aversion to the mission, “but the reality is they’re going to be here.”

Seven months after the City Council had approved the mission’s move from a downtown site to its present location at 1901 W. Walnut St. in December, 1980, residents of the area filed a lawsuit that still has not been resolved. The council took up the issue of the mission’s location this week in response to court rulings.

The city engineered the mission’s move to its present site as part of plans to redevelop the downtown, said executive director John Lands, adding that Santa Ana contributed some money to assist with the move.

He said the mission is operated strictly with private funds. Although there was some government financing at one time, that ended when mission officials were informed that religious services would have to stop or the funds would be withdrawn.

Estimates of the number of homeless people in Orange County vary, but Lands said a 1984 survey conducted by the mission and another organization, Share Our Selves, put the number as high as 4,000. Street people are allowed to spend a maximum of five nights a month in the facility on a first-come, first-served basis and can get a three-week extension if they find a job during their stay.

The average age of the men at the mission is about 30, Lands said. Many have college degrees and are on the streets because of emotional problems or drug or alcohol abuse. Very few pose any threat, he added. Lands said he can empathize with neighbors but said there has been no evidence of any crime increase in the area.

While crime statistics for the specific area aren’t available from police, residents know what has become of their neighborhood, attorney James Goff said.

“It’s brought a very unsavory element into the neighborhood,” he said. “The park’s becoming a haven for drug dealers and transients so that families are intimidated from going into the park, which is supposed to be for their use.”

Relcoation Is Key

Goff said businesses in the area also would like to see the mission relocated. He stressed that relocation is the key; he doesn’t want to see the mission closed for good.

“We’ve never felt that the task the mission fulfills should be abandoned. It should just be located in an area where it doesn’t infringe on the neighborhood’s atmosphere,” he said.

After the daily lunch Monday, some men lounged in the mission, reading or simply standing in the reception area. Others congregated in small groups outside and a couple swigged liquor on the sidewalk. Some weren’t willing to talk or be photographed, others didn’t much care.

One man who declined to give his name was wearing a wool cap, reading a book entitled “The Enemy Below” and puffing on an unfiltered cigarette. The scraggly bearded, 40-year-old man admitted he had been homeless about three years and slept wherever he could find a spot. He never sleeps at the mission but frequently comes by for a meal, he said.

‘Go Hungry a Lot’

What would it mean if the mission closed? “It would mean I’d go hungry a lot,” he said.

At one of the two front doorways, William Tulley sat and waited for a friend who had gone to investigate reports of jobs somewhere in the city. Tulley said he had been on the streets off and on for about 20 years and blamed his woes on a traffic accident that left him with two broken legs and a broken shoulder.

“It’s kind of hard for me to find a job at my age,” he said.

Tulley, 56, said he was going to try to sleep at the mission Monday night. That, he said, would be a distinct improvement over the doorway that served as shelter the night before. The mission serves almost 300 meals a day and provides a sleeping area equipped with bunk beds. During the recent cold spell, the mission allowed people to sleep on the floor with blankets and more than 100 slept there one night, said administrator Bob Wilson.

Pastor Lewis Whitehead, who founded the mission 24 years ago, still works there full time and conducts services every Sunday morning. He said he believes the number of people served has grown significantly in the last few years. He pointed out that the organization distributed about 300 turkeys last Thanksgiving and fed about 2,500 people on Christmas.

“And that ain’t no laughing matter,” he said.