‘I Don’t Think Anybody Believes I’m a Bad Guy’ : DeLorean Helps Give Homeless a New Start

Celebrity auto maker John Z. DeLorean came to town Wednesday to help bring light to San Diego’s homeless.

He joined organizers of a local rehabilitation program, New Start in Life, to announce the launching of a $10-million fund-raising program to expand a temporary center and eventually build a larger one in Blossom Valley in East San Diego County.

The organizers said they felt a terrible gloom six months ago when they had to close their downtown shelter.

From 1983 to 1986, the privately funded program had provided shelter, food and counseling to the homeless and their families at a pair of Victorian houses at 4082 Centre St. However, a developer bought the property and the project was forced to close in September, said the Rev. Johnny Carter, founder and president of New Start in Life.

The project’s directors, who include, in addition to DeLorean, board chairman William French Smith III--a lawyer and son of former U.S. Atty. Gen. William French Smith--plan to lease a new building June 1 at an undisclosed downtown site that will serve 41 people, Carter said.

That building is expected to act as “transition” for two years until construction of the larger facility, which is planned for a five-acre lot in Blossom Valley. Carter said the new center is scheduled to open in about two years and is expected to serve about 300 people.

Asked why the organization decided to move its operations out of downtown, Carter said, “It was hard to bring a change in people’s lives (there). Family members would come by and they would sneak drugs in. We could not put a fence up, transients would come by, and we had real problems trying to control traffic. We felt to really bring about change would be to remove them from that environment and place them in an environment that’s conducive to change.” Carter added that businesses and nearby residents at the old location complained about having alcohol and drug abusers nearby.

But DeLorean said the group was not happy about losing the downtown location.

“We were extremely disappointed when we lost our building downtown to redevelopment,” DeLorean said. “We’d all be kidding ourselves if we thought we didn’t have a homeless problem. We’re just inundated with homeless people. It’s a program that needs the encouragement and support of the community.”

DeLorean, who was acquitted in 1984 of cocaine-trafficking charges in Los Angeles, and of fraud and embezzlement charges in Detroit last year, said he began supporting the homeless program two years ago as part of a religious renewal.

“I have contributed in the past, and I’m the second-largest contributor to this program,” DeLorean said. He refused to say how much he was donating but added that his court trials should not lead people to perceive him as a bad person. Instead, he said, people should be looking at his involvement with charity.

“I don’t think anybody believes I’m a bad guy,” said DeLorean, whose sports car company went bankrupt and who was divorced by his wife shortly after the first trial. “We won both cases without presenting one minute of defense. They used about $54 million to prosecute me and both were shabby cases. If they feel I’m a bad guy, I don’t care about it. That’s their problem.”

Directors of the homeless program said it has had a 55% success rate with clients who entered the project with serious alcohol and drug abuse problems.