Irvine Weighs the Offer of Apartments for Homeless

The City of Irvine, hoping to salvage a $496,000 federal grant, is weighing an offer from the Irvine Co. to at least double the number of company-owned apartments it will make available to shelter homeless families.

The city has less than two weeks left to submit a new application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the money. The housing agency awarded Irvine the grant in October for the conversion of a vacant dog kennel into a homeless shelter, but then canceled it because of agency concerns about the location of the proposed shelter next to the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

City officials have been scrambling since to keep the grant by finding an alternative site that would be acceptable to HUD.

The City Council on Tuesday night decided to study further the Irvine Co.’s offer of five apartments for the homeless. HUD indicated late Monday it would allow the grant money to be used to subsidize the rental units, Assistant City Manager Paul Brady said.

The city is also negotiating with the company for the use of eight abandoned ranch bungalows at various locations on company property.

But Brady said only one of the vacant structures is in “usable shape,” with the rest in varying states of disrepair. In addition, he said, six of the bungalows are located under the flight pattern of military jets using El Toro air base.

Federal officials canceled Irvine’s grant for the conversion of the kennel at the Irvine Animal Care Center in the 1500 block of Sand Canyon Avenue after it learned the facility was under the same jet flight pattern. The animal center is less than half a mile from the air base on the city’s eastern flank.

The plan to convert one of the center’s two kennels into a 50-bed shelter for homeless families drew sharp criticism from some residents and attracted national attention. Led by Mayor Larry Agran, some city officials have said Irvine must do more to shelter the city’s growing homeless population, estimated at 5,000.

Opponents of the kennel conversion said they favored the expansion of the city’s apartment program for homeless families, which is run by nonprofit Irvine Temporary Housing.

Irvine homeless have been housed for up to 90 days in five subsidized apartments scattered around the city at undisclosed locations.

The offer by the Irvine Co. to double the number of apartments it would make available is considered a victory for those favoring a decentralized program as opposed to a congregate-care facility.

Agran said that UC Irvine also has indicated it will make up to five university controlled apartments available to the Irvine homeless group during summer months. And the mayor said that discussions are under way with campus officials to secure a site for some sort of central homeless shelter on university property.

Among the opponents of the kennel conversion was Lou Roberts, president of the 930-member Orangetree Master Homeowners Assn. The Orangetree area is the closest residential development to the kennel, and Roberts and others there opposed a centralized homeless shelter so close to their homes.

Roberts, who publicly threatened a lawsuit and a recall effort against the council, praised the move to expand the apartment program.

“It was a long time coming, but we are very pleased,” said Roberts, who feared that the converted kennel would act as a magnet to draw transients and chronic homeless to the area.