SEAL BEACH : Harassment by Homeless Is Claimed

The latest addition to a Pacific Coast Highway shopping center opened only six months ago, but already some residents hold it responsible for attracting rude and sometimes intoxicated homeless people who harass shoppers.

A new tavern? An all-night liquor store? No. The alleged culprit is a bottle and can recycling center at the entrance of the local Pavilions supermarket, which some say has turned a routine trip for groceries into an uncomfortable experience.

The issue has been the talk of the town ever since Mayor Gwen Forsythe described at a City Council meeting last month how her son and husband saw an apparently homeless man urinating in the Pavilions parking lot.

“This is inappropriate. It’s not supposed to happen in Seal Beach,” said Forsythe. “I’m not going to tolerate it.”

The recycling machines, installed with little fanfare in a city known for its environmental consciousness, have become magnets for the city’s two dozen or so homeless people, who rifle trash cans and dumpsters for aluminum cans and glass bottles. Then they bring them to the recycling machines to exchange for cash, according to police.

Taking material from trash receptacles is illegal, said Seal Beach police Sgt. Dean Zanone. But catching can bandits in the act has proven difficult, and police have reported only one recent arrest for scavenging.

Forsythe, who separates her trash for recycling, said her empty beverage containers are often gone before the garbage truck arrives.

On days when trash is collected, up to half a dozen homeless people may congregate near the recycling machines, said Zanone.

Most of them don’t bother shoppers, but a few have become known for their aggressive panhandling, which includes following people to their cars, police and residents said.

Councilwoman Marilyn Bruce Hastings said she recently saw a man with his pants down as he slept on a bench in the shopping center. “It was not nice to look at, especially if you had kids with you,” Hastings said.

Such behavior often comes to unfairly “represent the entire homeless population . . . when that’s not the case,” said Susan Oakson, executive director of Orange County Homeless Issues Task Force.

One homeless man who uses the recycling machines agreed, blaming the soured relations with shoppers on a few drunken people who demand money from passersby and urinate in public.

“What it boils down to is about three people. . . . One of them is just a shabby tramp. He smells like he hasn’t bathed in two years,” said Jay Diamond, who claims he’s lived on the streets of Seal Beach since April. “Most of us don’t want any problems.”

Some residents would like nothing more than to ship the recycling machines back. But it’s not that simple. State environmental law requires that such centers exist within 5,000 feet of many major supermarkets.

And Forsythe doubts simply moving the machines to the back of the markets will change the situation.

One possible solution being discussed involves placing separate recycling bins at the city’s public works yard, which residents could use to deposit their bottles and cans. The bins would keep more recyclables out of the hands of homeless people, making them less likely to use the machines, Forsythe said.

“I have compassion for the homeless, but when they frighten residents of our community . . . something has to be done about it,” Forsythe added.