Santa Ana Council Urged to Halt Homeless Policies

Church group members took their concerns over Santa Ana’s policies toward the homeless to the City Council Monday, asking for a halt in confiscations of unattended belongings and a committee to address the problem.

“I personally am embarrassed and shocked . . . by this aggressive and vulgar treatment,” said Father Wilbur Davis of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church. “The city has taken a position which I regard as public despair, far removed from our founding fathers . . . and devoid of moral legitimacy. . . . It is ill conceived, and it will fail.”

In late May, city maintenance workers began confiscating and then discarding bedrolls and other belongings stashed in bushes or left unattended on public property by homeless people.

Earlier this month, police began a crackdown on vagrants who deal drugs in Center Park and also announced that officers would soon begin enforcing city laws against camping in public parks.

Next week, the Planning Commission will consider a proposed ordinance that would place new restrictions on groups that operate soup kitchens, possibly limiting them to industrial areas.

Mayor Dan Young has said the measures are needed to preserve the city’s parks for all its residents and to protect the rights of business owners near the parks and homeless shelters.

Jim Homan, a Santa Ana resident and member of a group called the Human Rights for the Homeless Coalition, asked the council to establish a committee of police, merchants, residents and city officials to find solutions other than those now offered by the city.

“Our purpose is not to fight you because we don’t believe you’re fighting us,” Homan said. “We all want equitable solutions.’

Young endorsed the idea of a committee and asked the council to consider it, but he said he would prefer that such a panel look at the homeless issue on a countywide basis, with Santa Ana taking the lead role.