Pantry for Poor Moves Ahead Over Objections of Torrance Merchants

Like Job, Geraldene York has had her share of tribulation lately.

After three years of operating a food and clothing center for the poor at the Foursquare Gospel Church in Torrance, York was told last year that she would have to move out. The church wanted to remodel and needed the space.

York said she searched nearly two months before she found a suitable location in February at a vacant religious gift shop in Old Downtown Torrance.

But last week, as she worked to stock food shelves and fill clothes racks, 18 nearby merchants petitioned the city, asking that it deny the center’s application for a business license.

The city’s Licensing Review Board is expected to make a decision on the application Monday. The petition, which was delivered last Friday to the city planning director, said the merchants feared that the poor and homeless served by the center would frighten customers away from nearby businesses.

“Such a charitable function would attract those persons who in no way could or would be able to add to the economic viability of retail merchants, and in fact, such clientele potentially may repel current and future customers,” the petition said.

The petition goes on to say that the poor and homeless “contribute significantly to rising crime rates, particularly in the area of shoplifting, petty theft, vandalism and disorderly conduct.”

York rejects the petition’s arguments and said she is determined to open His House Food and Clothing Center at 1103 Sartori Avenue.

“I feel disappointed,” she said. “But the Lord will work it out. This is where we are meant to be.”

And she said she does not take her neighbors’ opposition personally. “What does the Bible say about forgiving your neighbor?” she asked rhetorically. “Forgive them seventy times seven.”

Sheila Cameron, owner of Mail n’ Stuff, a stationery supply shop two doors away from the center, said she sympathizes with the poor and homeless but objects to the location of the center.

“It is saying that the city of Torrance is open to people sleeping on the streets,” said Cameron, who signed the petition. “You can’t put something in here and not expect it to impact the area.”

Cameron said she fears the people served by the center will frighten her customers away. “Who knows what these people are going to do,” she said. “Once word of mouth gets out they will come from everywhere.”

Bobbie Yow, part owner of Kaleidoscope Kollectables, a gift shop around the corner from York’s center, said that businesses in the area are suffering and the people attracted by the center will only make matters worse.

“It’s just not economically viable,” she said. “We are struggling.”

But not all of York’s neighbors oppose the center. George Aichele, who operates the Little Company of Mary Auxiliary Thrift Shop next door to the center, said he supports the center.

“I’m for ‘em,” he said. “I don’t think (the needy) are going to bother us a bit.

“I’ve seen the kind of people that she will serve. These people are not bad people. They are just people down on their luck.”

In any case, city officials say, there may be very little the merchants can do to keep the center from opening.

The center is within the city’s redevelopment district and required a special development permit. David Ferren, city planning director, said that in the process of approving the permit, the city notified owners of all adjacent buildings asking if they objected to the center. After 15 days there were no replies, Ferren said, so he approved the permit in March.

Cameron and other merchants said their landlords did not tell them about the notice. They said the city should have notified the merchants in the area as well as the landlords.

Liz Rojas, chairwoman of the city Licensing Review Board, said the center has met all city requirements and the only decision remaining is whether the center meets the nonprofit status needed to get a free business license.

But the merchants oppose that. Rojas said that when York went before the city Licensing Review Board two weeks ago to ask for a free business license, about seven merchants spoke against the center and asked the board to reject York’s application. A decision was postponed until Monday, so that city attorneys can review whether the merchants have legal grounds for appeal.

“All we deal with at this board is if we should give a free license or not, and we usually give free licenses to nonprofit business,” Rojas said.

Assistant City Atty. William Quale said that if the city finds that the approval process was executed correctly, there is nothing the merchants can do.

But he added: “If there is a neighborhood problem, we want to resolve it. We don’t want to say we lived by the letter of the law, and the people are just going to have to live with the consequences.”

‘Stand My Ground’

York, who considers it her Christian duty to help feed and clothe the needy, said she understands her neighbors’ concerns but plans to open the center anyway.