Solution Sought in Crime Tied to Soup Kitchen in Oceanside

Searching for a solution to continuing troubles between a group of merchants and Brother Benno’s center for the homeless, the city of Oceanside plans to hire a mediation service to help the two parties work out their differences.

Merchants in the Oceanside Industrial Park in the San Luis Rey River Valley have been complaining for months that the homeless center’s clientele is responsible for an increase in crime.

Despite efforts by Brother Benno’s to control some of the actions of the people who come to the center, merchants say their businesses are still repeatedly burglarized and vandalized.

Michelle Lawrence, an administrative analyst for the city, said the attempt at formal mediation follows several meetings city officials have had with the merchants and Brother Benno’s representatives.

“We just thought it was another viable option and both sides have agreed to give it a try,” Lawrence said.

Spokesmen for the homeless center and the merchants said that, while they will be at the negotiating table, they were pessimistic that they would reach a breakthrough.

“I personally don’t know of anything else that can come out of the mediation that we aren’t already doing,” said Bud Ogle, the center’s acting director.

Michael Stenson, president of the industrial park’s merchants association, said: “I’m just afraid we’re going to get this olive branch from them and then we’ll get stuck with the thorns.”

A date has not been set for the discussions. Lawrence said the city is still negotiating with a San Diego mediation service, which usually charges $250 for each session.

Stenson said that if the mediation effort fails, the merchants will renew their efforts to have the city revoke Brother Benno’s conditional-use permit, on the grounds that the homeless center is a detriment to the surrounding area.

Although no one disputes that Brother Benno’s has been a magnet for homeless people seeking food and assistance, city officials say various factors have worked together to attract the growing population of homeless people to the industrial park area. The city has been helping downtown property owners to shoo away transients, and a flood-control project on the San Luis Rey River east of the park has disturbed large numbers of encampments, forcing the squatters to look for other settling places. In addition, the weakened economy has forced more people onto the streets.

Merchants took city officials on a tour of the river valley behind the industrial park in July, showing them several campsites set up with materials taken from nearby businesses. The city responded the following month by clearing out the camps from the densely wooded property, which is city owned.

But the problems have not gone away.

Stenson said that during an eight-day period in the last few weeks, a cleaning business in the park was broken into five times and had its office equipment stolen. “They’re even going through steel doors now,” he said.

Ogle, Brother Benno’s acting director, said the center has stressed to its clientele the importance of respecting the neighborhood. The center, which used to be open from early morning until the afternoon, now closes at 11 a.m. to encourage its clientele to get the food and services they need and move on.

Brother Benno’s moved out of downtown and into a former warehouse in the industrial park in May, 1991. At the time, city officials thought the new location was as good as any to minimize impacts of the homeless on neighboring residents and businesses.

The center daily serves an average of 200 people, who on weekdays come for breakfast, a sack lunch, showers, laundry services, medical assistance, job counseling and other services. On Saturdays and Sundays, the center dishes up a midday meal.

Ogle said the center’s volunteer staff has been patrolling the surrounding neighborhood to clean up litter left by transients and to discourage homeless people from loitering near businesses. But Ogle said Brother Benno’s staff can only do so much to control the actions of the transients, many of whom are not the center’s clients.

“We’re trying not to do those things that enable them to continue their bad habits,” he said. “Obviously, we’re not going to be 100% successful.”

Consequently, Stenson said the merchants association is taking matters into its own hands by setting up a security patrol staffed by merchants who will volunteer their time. The patrol will lease from the city two former police cars that had been destined for auction.

Stenson said the city made the agreement so the merchants can also keep their eyes on a city Department of Public Works yard and the municipal airport, where vandalism has been on the rise.

Police have been unable to beef up patrols in the area because of limited manpower due to city budget problems. In recent months, however, the Police Department assigned an officer with a dog to patrol the area at night.

The security patrol cars will bear the logo of the merchants association and drive through the park on a “sporadic” basis, Stenson said. “We’ll be the Police Department’s eyes and ears,” he said.