Fullerton to Hold Forum on Problems of Homeless

A special forum on the problem of homelessness in Fullerton has tentatively been set for early February.

The City Council last week voted to hold the forum. That action stemmed from a request sent in December by the Fullerton Interfaith Ministerial Assn. to city officials asking for a task force to study the issue. While council members agreed that Fullerton did have a problem, they said it was more than the city alone could solve.

“Homelessness is mainly a problem for Orange County,” Councilman A.B. (Buck) Catlin said. “What we can do is define what is Fullerton’s own unique problem and go from there.”

The forum would include representatives from the city’s business, education, civic, social and religious groups. The Orange County Task Force on the Homeless also would be invited.

The ministerial association, in its request, said, “There appears to be a dismal public ignorance and insensitivity regarding these marginal people of our society. . . . The members of the Fullerton Interfaith Ministerial Assn. are convinced that a comprehensive approach to the problems facing the homeless and our community is needed, indeed, overdue.”

Councilman Richard C. Ackerman said it is difficult to pinpoint just how many homeless people are in Fullerton.

A recent report by a county task force estimated that 10,000 people in Orange County are homeless, including about 500 from the Fullerton area. But groups that operate shelters in the area estimate the number is much higher.

“It seems that there would be a better way to address this problem” than to try to do it locally, Ackerman said. “All of Orange County’s cities should work together to attack this problem.”

The Rev. Ron West, pastor of the Morningside Presbyterian Church in Fullerton and vice president of the interfaith association, acknowledged that the homeless problem is a monumental task.

“Maybe this problem is too big for one city to handle,” West said. “But maybe we could make Fullerton a model for other cities to follow.”