Council to Decide Whether Shelter Belongs in La Habra Neighborhood : Homelessness: Advocates say it would serve only families and operate under strict rules. Opponents worry that property values would decline.

Bob Hana and a group of volunteers have been working since 1988 to open the city’s first homeless shelter, a facility that would offer temporary refuge to families that would otherwise be on the streets.

The volunteers expected the Planning Commission to approve the zone change necessary to build the shelter behind a Catholic church, since the city planning staff had no objections. But the commission, after hearing protests from area residents who feared the shelter would harm property values, unanimously rejected the zone change, saying the project would cause traffic problems.

Tonight, after a public hearing, the City Council is scheduled decide whether to change the zoning from low to medium density to allow the nonprofit Mary’s Home for Families in Transition to be built.

“We are here to help good families who have fallen on hard times and who need a second chance,” said Pete Sterling, Mary’s Home facility chairman.

Only families referred by a city or county agency could stay at Mary’s Home, and only after being screened.

“We will not be taking in street people or those who come up to the front door,” said Hana, the coordinator for Mary’s Home. “There will be no alcohol, no drugs--everything will be monitored including their income . . . and they must sign a contract accepting these conditions.”

Hana said he hopes to dispel the community’s concerns about the project.

“In some cases, the concerns are legitimate and sincere, but others are made through exaggeration and fear,” Hana said.

City Council members contacted Monday declined to comment on the zone change or Mary’s Home before the public hearing. At the Planning Commission hearing, about a dozen area residents protested the zone change. They worried that having a shelter in the neighborhood could cause property values to fall and would increase traffic in the area.

City Manager Lee Risner said the Planning Commission was only considering the zone change, not whether the shelter should be built.

“Too many people are trying to read into this vote that it was against Mary’s Home, but it was not,” Risner said.

The $2.5-million shelter, proposed as an eight-unit gated complex that could house up to 32, would target families headed by young, single mothers, Hana said.

Mary’s Home residents would undergo training for skills ranging from job searches to nutrition and child care. They would be expected to help take care of the shelter and pay rent if they could afford it. Families would be allowed to stay from three months to a year, and facility staff will be on duty 24 hours a day.

The shelter would be built on the south end of the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe property, which is owned by the Diocese of Orange. The diocese has agreed to lease the property for $1 a year for the next 50 years to Mary’s Home, said Don Crough, construction coordinator for the diocese.

Partial funding for the project will come from a $250,000 bequest left to the St. Vincent de Paul Society of La Habra by Mary Kretschmar, for whom the shelter would be named. Kretschmar, a longtime La Habra Heights resident who died five years go, was known for her involvement in the community.

So far, planning costs for the shelter have been covered by donations and interest from the Kretschmar bequest, Sterling said.

Although the proposed property and project funds are associated with the Catholic Church, Mary’s Home will not be affiliated with any religion.

There are no homeless shelters in La Habra, which has about 51,000 residents. About 80% of the county’s homeless are estimated to live in North County, and although La Habra does not face as large a homeless problem as larger cities, Hana said he generally sees about 10 homeless people on any given day in the city.