Anaheim to Seek Relocation of Welfare Office : Facility: It will ask the county’s Social Services Agency to find a new place, citing the rise in crime and loitering near La Palma Park.

The City Council will ask the county’s Social Services Agency to move one of its welfare offices because it has added to crime and loitering in a nearby park and residential neighborhood.

“It behooves us to put a lot of pressure on the county to get this welfare office out of the area,” Councilman Irv Pickler said of the office at 1133 Homer St.

The proposal drew support from the county agency.

“We feel somewhat victimized too,” said Director Larry M. Leaman, noting that there have been robberies, burglaries and even an arson at the welfare office in Anaheim. “We would like to find a better location that’s more acceptable to our staff, clients and the city.”

The building, which used to be the North County Courthouse, is too small to accommodate the hundreds of welfare recipients who go there each weekday to collect financial support and food stamps, Leaman said.

“The building has outlived its usefulness,” he said.

A move, however, does not appear imminent, Leaman said. Finding a new place will cost money, which is in short supply for county government.

Meanwhile, Leaman said, his agency will try to diminish some of the problems in the area, including posting no-loitering signs, putting up a chain-link fence and deploying additional security officers around the building.

The welfare office, which has been in that location for more than a decade, has caused concern among residents for years. They say some welfare recipients loiter in nearby La Palma Park and drink alcohol or use drugs there.

If the office is relocated, it would have to be somewhere in the general area because it needs to be close to the clientele in North County, Leaman said.

“I’m sure a better place can be found,” he added.

People at the welfare office Wednesday seemed surprised by the city’s action.

“That’s going to be rough if they move this place . . . inconvenient,” said Ben Shaw, 56, of Anaheim, who was waiting in line for benefits. “I don’t think problems are caused by the people who come here.”

Another recipient, Paul Wise, 48, said he could understand the city wanting to move the office because of criminal activity, but felt that the problems would follow it.

“It’s kind of like a strange zoo,” he said. “Where can they put it?”

However, he said he would not mind too much if the office is relocated.

“At this point in our lives, we don’t have too many options anyway,” said Wise, an unemployed yachtsman who is living in his truck. “We’ll just go to where they move it.”

Closing the office was proposed to the council in dramatic fashion Tuesday night by a community group called Somebody. The group had presented council members with a videotape of an alleged drug deal occurring in the park not far from the welfare office.

For the past month, the group has drawn attention to the problems in the area, mostly through its well-publicized dumping of steer manure in the park as an anti-drug dealer message.

After the group’s presentation Tuesday, Mayor Tom Daly asked that a letter be drafted to ask the county to move the welfare office. Councilmen Pickler, Fred Hunter, Frank Feldhaus and Bob D. Simpson voiced their support.

“All it takes is a few deadbeat dope users to ruin the park for everybody else,” Pickler said. “I just want to eliminate it.”

Feldhaus said he wants the welfare office moved out of the residential area, but said the new site must be carefully selected so that it does not interfere with business there.

Keith Olesen, a leader of Somebody, said he is pleased with the council’s action and hopes the office will be moved within six months.

“It’s not going to be easy,” Olesen said. “Nobody else wants to rent to the (welfare office) either. . . . But it’s just a dumb place to have the office. Its closure is the one thing that will have a major impact on that neighborhood.”

Olesen, who is a member of the city’s Gang and Drug Task Force, said that in 1992 police were called to La Palma Park 187 times and to two neighboring motels 193 times for such crimes as drug use, burglary, robbery and assault.

The group also intends to meet with Supervisor William G. Steiner next week to discuss relocating the welfare office.

Steiner said Wednesday that he is well aware of the problems in the area because his daughter used to work in the welfare office and often came home “with war stories” about the place.

“I would certainly be interested in moving the office, so long as we don’t eliminate a problem in one area and create it in another,” the supervisor said.

Uneasy Neighbors City wants welfare office relocated.