SOS Needs a ‘Yes’ Vote

The Costa Mesa City Council faces an important decision Tuesday: whether to grant a conditional use permit to the Share Our Selves charity to relocate in an industrial building in the southwest area of town. The Planning Commission has already approved the permit, but some local business owners and nearby residents objected, sending the final decision to the council. The council should grant the permit without further delay.

SOS is being evicted by the council from its present location at Rea Community Center on Hamilton Street in response to concerns from neighbors, who complained about the thousands of homeless and poor who come to the center every month for financial assistance, clothing and food.

The eviction had its silver lining, however. It generated $300,000 in contributions, enough to allow SOS to begin purchasing its own building. Now, SOS has been pledged another $200,000 in matching donations by two Orange County companies, Fieldstone Co. of Newport Beach and Fieldstead & Co. of Irvine. That should help SOS come up with much of the $1.4 million needed to buy the Superior Avenue building, thus securing its future.

As SOS executive director Jean Forbath has pointed out continually, there is almost nowhere the charity could relocate where there would be no opposition. That’s true for the Superior Avenue location. But, all in all, the new building is appropriately situated in a mostly industrial area. In addition, SOS has promised to do more to make sure its clients conduct themselves in a manner fitting to the neighborhood. The City Council has said all along that it wants the charity to relocate in just such an area. It is time to back words with action. Give SOS the permits it needs to move to new quarters.