Trouble Follows Oceanside Soup Kitchen to New Site

When Brother Benno’s soup kitchen moved out of downtown Oceanside last year, it sought refuge from complaints that its clientele was to blame for high crime, filth and lost business.

Although now tucked away in an industrial park near the Oceanside Municipal Airport, the center is once again fending off charges that the homeless who line up for daily breakfasts and lunches are ruining the neighborhood.

“We don’t intend to abuse the homeless, but we are business people who are being abused by the homeless,” said Don Brust, a veterinarian whose office is in the industrial park.

Brust and seven other businessmen from the park announced Wednesday that they have organized the Oceanside Industrial Park Merchants Assn. to get rid of the increased crime and other problems they say the homeless have brought to the area in the San Luis Rey River Valley.

Before the Brother Benno’s Center opened in a former warehouse on Production Avenue last May, the businessmen said, thefts, burglaries and vandalism were only occasional occurrence.

But now, they say, break-ins and damage to their property are commonplace. Before starting their business days, they often have to deal with transients living in vehicles in parking lots, people sleeping in doorways or panhandlers seeking change.

Oceanside police statistics show that crime has increased since Brother Benno’s opened. In the first three months of this year, for example, 26 crimes, including thefts, burglaries, robberies and vandalism were reported in the vicinity. During the same period last year, 12 such crimes were reported to police.

Police Department spokesman Bob George would not comment on whether the increased crimes are tied to Brother Benno’s. “What you’re asking me to do is give an opinion on something that is political,” George said. “I’m not going to do that.”

City Manager James Turner said that, so far, the city

has not verified that the finger should be pointed at Brother Benno’s clients.

“We’re certainly going to look at it and come to our own conclusions,” Turner said. “This type of thing is happening all over the county. I attribute it to the economy.”

But the merchants are certain they know the main source of the problem, and they want Brother Benno’s evicted.

Tom Leslie, director of Brother Benno’s, takes such complaints in stride. Having been the assistant director of the San Diego Rescue Mission for seven years before coming to Oceanside, Leslie has struggled with merchants many times over the fallout from helping the homeless.

“Works such as ours need to be located somewhere, and I know that the people in the area would just as soon it not be located here,” Leslie said. “But, for the life of me, I don’t know where else we could locate.

“I think we could do a better job if the business owners in the area, the city, ourselves and the Police Department, rather than being in an adversarial position, could sit down and say, ‘Yes, we have a problem; what can we do to solve it.’

“We provide a very valuable service to the community,” Leslie said.

Leslie concedes that the homeless who come to Brother Benno’s are contributing to the area’s problems. However, he cites other factors, such as the closing of area homeless encampments, for making matters worse.

Brother Benno’s has been trying to deal with the situation by encouraging merchants to call about their problems, Leslie said. The center’s volunteers also have tried to get treatment for the mentally ill homeless who often are the source of disturbances that threaten to drive away businesses’ customers.

But the possibility of determining who among the 200 daily visitors are worthy or unworthy of help is not something that sits well with members of the Brother Benno’s Foundation, which operates the soup kitchen.

“It may come to the point where we may have to make that distinction,” Leslie said. “That would make us look better, but I’m not sure it would solve the problem.”

Leslie said he plans to attend a May 12 meeting that the merchants association has scheduled to discuss the problem with the police and city and county officials.

Despite the latest controversy, not all of Brother Benno’s neighbors oppose its work.

Charlie Shacochis and Darrel Polan, salesmen at Classic Sanitary Supply, said they haven’t noticed any problems since Brother Benno’s moved into the nondescript building a couple of blocks away.

“It’s just like an airport,” Shacochis said while motioning out the window to the nearby facility. “It’s got to be somewhere.

The homeless “need a place,” Shacochis said. “Somebody’s got to take care of them.”