GARDEN GROVE : Homeless Meal Site Could Be Rotated

After residents complained about a program to feed homeless people who gather in Pioneer Park, city officials said they may require the program to be rotated among several sites in Garden Grove.

Volunteers have been informally feeding people at the park for about three years, and some area residents claim that crime and other problems have increased as the program has grown.

The City Council discussed the homeless issue for about two hours at this week’s meeting before unanimously adopting a plan that may result in a rotation of the feeding program “so that (Pioneer Park) is not identified as a place to congregate,” said City Manager George Tindall.

The council voted for this plan instead of a recommendation by the Community Services Commission to create a city committee on homelessness problems and toughen law enforcement around Pioneer Park at 12722 Chapman Ave.

Representatives of the feeding program have argued that banning or restricting it would not drive out the homeless people or significantly cut crime.

The plan the council adopted also calls for the city to continue working with a countywide task force on the homeless, meet with homeowners and merchants to combat crime in the park area and seek to have judges require that repeat offenders not return to the area as a condition of probation.