Homeless Group Seen as Unsavory Tenant

The owners of a new eight-story, downtown building said the San Diego Coalition for the Homeless cannot use office space there because the group’s work is “totally incompatible with the building’s image.”

Officials at Broe Cos. Inc., which owns the 4th Avenue Corporate Center building, found themselves Wednesday battling what a corporate officer said was a public relations problem stemming from the company’s decision to block the homeless coalition from the building.

George W. Cable IV, managing director of Broe’s real estate services division, said in a prepared statement that company officials lauded the coalition’s work and offered to help the group “to locate premises,” but not in the Broe Building.

The flap led to a coalition lawsuit, filed Wednesday in San Diego County Superior Court by Los Angeles attorney David Grey.

The lawsuit asks that Broe allow the homeless coalition to work out of the building in space previously rented to Grey. Before moving his office to Los Angeles, Grey rented a 7th-floor suite in the building, at 4th Avenue and Cedar Street.

Grey, a coalition supporter, offered the office to the group and volunteered to continue paying the rent until the lease he had signed with Broe expires June 30, 1992. Coalition officials said that Grey has paid the organization’s rent “on and off, when we were short of funds” for the last two years.

Norma Rossi, coalition executive director, said the group wants “to use the office as an office only.” Rossi, 61, said the space would be used to locate shelter and services for homeless pregnant teens and homeless women with children.

Grey’s lawsuit echoed Rossi’s comment.

“Please be assured that this is not a homeless shelter, and there will be no one sleeping on the premises or otherwise acting in any way inconsistent with normal office operations,” said Grey in a May 17 letter to Cable.

Cable, however, said other suggested uses for the office listed in Grey’s letter were unacceptable. The letter said the homeless coalition would also use the facility during normal office hours to distribute “vital necessities such as baby food, diapers, clothing, tampons, etc. to homeless women and children in the San Diego area.”

In a June 5 letter to Grey, Cable said that using the office to distribute items to the homeless was unacceptable to Broe officials.

“The nature of the proposed occupancy by the proposed assignee is totally unacceptable with the building’s existing use and image and is not of a quality substantially equal to that of a legal office,” Cable’s letter said.

In the prepared statement released Wednesday, Cable said the building’s tenants include attorneys, architects and other professionals. “The owner only leases to tenants who intend to use the building for general office purposes,” said the statement.

Grey countered that the coalition is operating a business that is no different from other professional services offered by the building’s tenants.

Mark A. Spiegler, Broe’s attorney, fired off a letter to Grey on Monday, in which he said that “a card room is a business, and yet I do not believe it is an allowable usage of the premises.”

This prompted an angry reply from Grey.

“They analogize what we do for people to a card room, because that’s where their head is at. This speaks so eloquently to their mind-set,” Grey said.

While the attorneys and company officials continue their war of words, Rossi said, the needs of the homeless go unmet.

“We take care of a different segment of homeless. We take care of pregnant teens, brand-new babies, plus we also take care of the elderly. We try to get these people into apartments. It isn’t like we’ll be dealing with hardheads, people who don’t want to help themselves,” Rossi said.

“The hardheads and adults can eat anywhere. But none of these other places cater to the very young, like infants who need baby formula. That’s where we take up the slack.”

She said her group is now helping several pregnant girls who are 12 years old and one who is only 11 years old.

“There are places for these girls when they’re 18 or older. But there is no place available for girls this young when they’re having babies,” Rossi said. “Most of them tell me they weren’t looking for sex. They were looking for love. Most of their parents are alcoholics, and, when the kids got pregnant, they threw them out for being no good. So, now we have throwaway children.”

Rossi and her husband, Bruce Rossi, are both disabled, but volunteer most of their time to working with the homeless. Bruce Rossi, 65, is president of the coalition’s board of directors.

“We do it strictly on a volunteer basis because the need is there, and somebody needs to care,” said Norma Rossi. “When it rains, I’m frantic. I go to places where I know homeless children are sleeping and wet. I’ve had my living room filled with homeless children more than once. . . . Most people in the community have no idea what’s going on with the homeless. These little kids who are out on the street for no reason of their own need to know that somebody cares.”