GARDEN GROVE : Panel Urged to Study Homeless Problem

A city commission has recommended that the City Council form a committee to examine the problem of homelessness in Garden Grove.

The Community Services Commission’s recommendation came this week in response to complaints and concerns raised by neighbors in the area of Pioneer Park. The panel also urged the city to explore toughening its ordinances against problems such as alcohol in city parks and violation of the 11 p.m. park curfew.

The vote was 5 to 1, with Commissioner Irving Wagner dissenting and Arthur Bluff absent.

Those recommendations emerged from a 2 1/2-hour hearing before the commission, prompted by 20 letters complaining about problems in the park, located at 12722 Chapman Ave. between Haster Street and Harbor Boulevard. It is the site of an informal program to feed the homeless each Sunday, which attracts up to 300 persons.

In a letter signed by some park neighbors and sent to the council, residents asked that the city take action so that “groups not utilize public parks to feed the homeless.”

“While no one objects to them getting a hot meal, the location is now becoming known among transients and the number is rapidly increasing. This results in a dramatically increased incidence of approaches by the homeless to residents who shop in the area. . . . There is an increase in actual approaches at people’s homes, door-to-door for handouts,” the letter said.

Cal R. Rietzel, manager of the city’s community services division, which oversees parks, said the meeting was “very emotional” with an unprecedented turnout.

“In all the time I’ve been here, this is the first time we’ve ever had an audience,” he said.

About 70 persons were present, about a third of them park neighbors complaining that the feeding program attracted more homeless. The remainder supported the Sunday meals, Rietzel said.

“I really feel that if we were to completely move the feeding program out of the area, the problems are not going to go away,” said Mary L. Hennessy, a leader of the group feeding the homeless.

Police Lt. Scott M. Jordan told the commission that about 135 arrests have been made so far this year in Pioneer Park, mostly for minor offenses concerning alcohol and curfew.