Costa Mesa Council Takes Up SOS Fate

Dozens of supporters of Share Our Selves ended a fast at City Hall on Monday night, then packed the City Council chambers to learn whether the problem-plagued charity would be given a reprieve and be allowed to extend its stay at the Rea Community Center.

The City Council met into the early morning hours today to consider several options to deal with SOS: to extend its lease while the agency prepares to move into a new permanent location; to approve helping the charity move to temporary quarters; or to proceed with the eviction, which city officials estimate could take up to 60 days if SOS opposes the eviction as planned.

“We are prepared to go it alone,” SOS founder and executive director Jean Forbath, told the council. “All we ask is time and patience. Don’t make us face you in court.”

SOS has been a fixture in town for nearly 20 years, providing food, clothing and medical and financial assistance to the poor and homeless from Costa Mesa and surrounding communities.

But as its services have grown, it has run into increasing complaints from neighbors near the Rea center at 661 Hamilton St., its home for the last nine years. The residents argue that SOS clients have disrupted the neighborhood, threatened children and increased the crime rate.

Last July--despite police data contradicting residents’ complaints--the City Council finally took heed and the charity was given six months to vacate the community center. At the same, the city offered to help SOS find new quarters.

Earlier this month, however, the council rejected as too costly a plan to move SOS into an industrial building on Superior Avenue. After rejecting the $100,000-plus proposal, city officials told the charity’s directors the ball was in their court and urged them to find a location on their own.

The charity, which had previously devoted little time to fund raising, did just that. Spurred by pleas from religious and community leaders, more than $300,000 in donations poured into SOS coffers in less than a week.

Last week, Forbath, who had said she never thought the agency would be in a position to purchase its own facility, an

nounced that the group had located an 8,000-square-foot industrial building and was negotiating to buy it.

All that was needed now, said SOS directors, was a little leeway--perhaps three months--in the Rea center while the new building was readied.

Also last week, Mayor Peter Buffa announced a compromise plan whereby SOS would move into a building on West MacArthur Boulevard and sublet about 4,200 square feet from the Community Development Council, a private countywide poverty agency, which, unlike SOS, does not offer direct client services.

Although the CDC plan would also be costly for the city--more than $177,000 over five years--it was intended to give SOS more time to find and renovate a building while meeting concerns of residents who want the charity out of the Rea center as soon as possible, Buffa said.

In addition, city officials said they expect that some of the contributions SOS has received will be used to help defray costs to the city.

SOS directors had indicated that the CDC compromise would be considered only as a last resort.

Meanwhile, a weekend rally and fast organized by SOS proceeded as planned, attracting more than 1,000 SOS supporters and a handful of SOS opponents.

The opponents, some of whom carried picket signs with the letters SOS in a red circle with a line through it, argued that the charity should be evicted immediately.