SANTA ANA : Fund Pinch Will Close the YMCA

After 68 years of serving the community and providing temporary boarding for hundreds of men, the YMCA will close its Santa Ana building next month due to lack of funds, YMCA officials announced Monday.

The historic, three-story building, on the corner of Civic Center Drive and Sycamore Street in the heart of downtown, lost $200,000 during the 1990 fiscal year, said Douglas Wood, executive director of the Santa Ana-Tustin Young Men’s Christian Assn.

“We’re all sad about” the pending closure, said Wood, who has been with the YMCA since 1963. “This building has provided service for the community . . . a home away from home for people just coming to Santa Ana.”

The building, opened in 1923, “looks good on the outside,” he said. “But on the inside, if we compare it to working body parts--the heart and lungs and digestive system--they just don’t work like they used to.”

The branch will discontinue its Health and Fitness Program on May 3 and the building will close on May 17.

Administrators are in the process of looking for a new, smaller facility in downtown Santa Ana, said Bill Gilbow, chairman of the board of the YMCA of Orange County. There, the YMCA will resume some programs, although not a health and fitness program, Gilbow said.

Along with eight offices and two lounges, the building also has 83 single- and double-occupancy rooms. Cheap rents of $15 for a single and $20 for a double room have kept the occupancy rate close to 90%, Wood said.

Rune Nordstrom, who lives and works at the YMCA branch, said he was shocked when told of the closure. “Now, I have to find another place to live and another job,” he said.

The fate of the building is still uncertain. City and YMCA officials have been looking into the possibility of selling it to a buyer who would convert it into low-cost, single-room housing.