SANTA ANA : Mental Health Assn. Suffers Setback

Citing pressure from nearby residents, the Mental Health Assn. of Orange County has withdrawn its application for a permit to operate a facility for mentally ill homeless people in the basement of a United Methodist church on Santa Ana Boulevard.

The association had planned to relocate to the church because it can no longer run the nonprofit Lighthouse Program out of the old YMCA building on Civic Center Drive. That building is up for sale.

But after meeting last week with members of the Historic French Park Assn., which is made up of residents near the church, Lighthouse Program officials decided not to go through with the plans, which were to be considered by the city’s Planning Commission this week.

“After the reaction from the residents, we anticipated that the Planning Commission was not going to approve it,” said John A. Garrett, director of the Mental Health Assn.

Garrett said he believes that the residents reacted to the proposal with what he calls the “not in my neighborhood syndrome.”

“I can understand (the residents’) concern, but I believe we had good responses for those concerns,” Garrett said. “The program is not an unknown. We’ve been operating out of the YMCA successfully for four years. I believe we could have moved this program three or four blocks away to the Methodist church and continued to operate just as we are now. We had no intention of putting up a neon sign asking people to come in. All of our clients are referred to us by either the county or other homeless programs.”

But French Park residents say their opposition is not based on neighborhood hysteria.

“We have three homes for alcoholic women in our neighborhood, so it’s not like we would faint if we saw a homeless person,” said Diann Marsh, second vice president of the neighborhood association.

“We did quite a bit of investigating and research on our own and a lot of things that (Lighthouse Program officials) told us didn’t make sense,” Marsh said. “We were told that all of the program’s participants would be bused in from shelters, and we found this was not the case.”

The program offers regular psychiatric and medical care to help clients ultimately find permanent housing and return to the work force. Each day, an average of 25 clients receive lunch, clothing, a place to shower and help in finding night shelter. Arts and crafts, field trips, job search classes and other activities are also offered.

Despite the setback, Garrett said he is pleased that city officials are helping the organization search for other locations for the program, which will not be forced to vacate the YMCA until it can find a permanent home.