Homeless Center Agrees to Help Combat Crime

Officials of Brother Benno’s homeless center said Monday that they will help local merchants patrol the industrial area near Oceanside Municipal Airport to try to reduce crime that shop owners blame largely on transients drawn to the center.

After meeting with a professional mediator, representatives of Brother Benno’s and the Oceanside Industrial Park Assn. said they will erect more “no trespassing” and “no parking” signs throughout the 267-acre park.

The city is also increasing nighttime police patrols and will try to add more street lighting, spokesman Larry Bauman said.

The agreement comes after several informal meetings between the two sides that yielded no breakthrough. Merchants complained they were being repeatedly burglarized and vandalized, while homeless center officials said they had cut back their hours of operation and tried to discourage loitering near the park’s businesses.

John Blasier, acting president of the Brother Benno’s Foundation board and a member of the merchants association, said a homeless center volunteer is now teaming with merchants in sporadic patrols through the area.

Homeless center workers will also continue their own walking patrols, wearing orange vests and hats, officials said.

“Both sides are trying to cooperate the best we can,” said Blasier, who runs an electronics firm in the industrial park. “We want to be a good neighbor.”

Blasier said the two-person teams of a merchant and a center volunteer would simply note potential problems, calling police if necessary, and would not confront anyone seen breaking the law. Those seen causing trouble would no longer be served at the homeless center.

“The better we are at the center as far as keeping the undesirable element out, the more (women and children) we can help” because they will be more comfortable about coming there, Blasier added.

The merchants association began the patrols three weeks ago in two cars leased from the city of Oceanside. The cars, which had been bound for auction, are leased for $1,000 a year each, officials said.

Blasier said the Brother Benno’s board was considering helping to pay for the leasing.

Merchants association President Mike Stenson said he hoped Brother Benno’s would also help pay the insurance and maintenance costs of the cars.

“It’s a good start,” Stenson said of the agreement. “We just have to see where it goes from here.”

The city paid the $250 fee to the San Diego Mediation Center to bring the two sides together.

The homeless center, which in May, 1991, moved from downtown into a former warehouse in the industrial park, provides meals, showers, laundry services, job counseling and medical assistance to about 200 people a day.