COSTA MESA : SOS Dental Clinic Can Stay a While

Share Our Selves will be allowed to keep its dental clinic at the Rea Community Center at least until next January while the rest of the organization relocates, according to an agreement reached with the City Council this week.

“That was a crucial point with us,” said Jean Forbath, founder and executive director of SOS, which provides emergency food, clothing and financial assistance to about 5,000 Orange County families.

Under the agreement, SOS will cease operations at its current home on Hamilton Street by June 1 and move out by June 15. In the meantime, the charity will relocate to an industrial building at 1550 Superior Ave.

Attorney Steve Dawson, who is handling the legal arrangement for the city, did not return phone calls Thursday and Friday.

The council last July canceled the 20-year-old charity’s lease at the city-managed community center. Residents complained that SOS had outgrown its quarters and that its clients loitered, littered and increased traffic in the area.

The dental clinic was to have been moved along with the rest of the organization, while the medical clinic was allowed to remain at the community center, Forbath said. The lease for the medical clinic isn’t up until January, when SOS will decide whether to move it to the new location, she said.