Residents Give Voice to Santa Ana Gang Fears : Violence: 1,000 people pack a church hall to ask officials to include them in ‘action plan’ to halt crime.

Frustrated and afraid of gang violence, about 1,000 churchgoers and other residents packed a church hall Tuesday night to ask that Santa Ana city and school officials include them in an “action plan” to stop youth crime.

“We have been forced to live like prisoners,” said Estella Lopez, 47, who has four children. “My kids are afraid; my husband was confronted by gang members in our own house. . . . We really need your help. Something needs to be done.”

The meeting, which overflowed the 1,000-seat capacity St. Anne’s Catholic Church, was organized by the Orange County Congregation Community Organization. It represents about 50,000 families from five Santa Ana Catholic churches and 10 congregations of various denominations from 11 other cities, members said.

The representatives told officials Tuesday that they are tired of gang violence and fearful for their children, and they invited city officials to discuss with them what to do.

City leaders pledged that they will work with the church coalition to prepare an action plan by April so the programs can be funded in the 1994-95 city budget.

“It is an epidemic,” Mayor Daniel H. Young said. “The gangs are killing the youth of the city. They are creating racial tension. They have virtually destroyed the reputation of this city. . . . We intend to take the sternest possible measures.”

But Young placed much of the responsibility for solving the problem on the parents of the community.

“You need to know the signs . . . you need to be able to counsel them,” he said.

Members of the coalition said police have estimated there are now 9,000 gang members in Santa Ana, where gang violence has claimed more than 40 lives this year.

Kathy Hernandez, director of religious education at St. Anne’s, said she said once thought gangs affected only “other people.” Then the violence hit closer to home.

Nighttime gunfire has escalated in areas near the church on Main Street, she said. Gang bullets have sent youths into St. Anne’s in caskets. And in August, she said, her 20-year-old nephew was killed in gang cross-fire in Santa Ana as he was going home from a party.

“The programs they have in place now for children are good programs,” the 46-year-old Hernandez said before the meeting. “But obviously, with the increase of crime, they aren’t good enough.”

Members of the coalition from St. Joseph’s Catholic Church agreed.

“We love Santa Ana--that’s why we want to see some change,” said Andy Saavedra, a St. Joseph’s parishioner for 14 years.

Saavedra said he wants residents and school and city officials to review the city’s youth programs because some may be duplicate programs or may be unknown to many residents. Some offerings that are well-intentioned might not work, he said, so officials need to hear from community members about them.

For example, the school district offers videos that inform parents about youth and gang programs, Saavedra said. But he said he has talked to more than 300 families in Santa Ana, and many do not have videocassette players in their homes.

He called for more after-school activities for children, and anti-gang education, such as the city’s PRIDE program for fourth- and fifth-graders. Others said older children and teen-agers need similar activities too.

Other subjects that residents were anxious to discuss included job training for hard-core gang members, summer job programs, parent counseling and tutoring for teen-agers.

Even when activities for youths are available, Saavedra said, the atmosphere of gang violence can cloud the lives of kids who get A’s in school, set records on athletic fields and stay out of trouble.

“Our basketball team (at St. Joseph’s Church) has a pretty good record, but they won a few by forfeits,” Saavedra said. Other youth teams from around the county “don’t want to come here because they’re afraid of gangs.”

The church coalition has been active in the county since 1985. Last year, more than 2,000 members from throughout the county met to launch a platform, Family Priority Agenda, that demands improvements in education, health care and other concerns from elected officials.

The group has also lobbied several cities, especially Santa Ana and Anaheim, to improve facilities such as parks, help residents fight drug abuse, and direct police to blighted areas that need law enforcement attention.

Concerns about the plight of urban youth are not unique to Orange County, coalition members pointed out. Members of one of the group’s sister organizations in Denver also met Tuesday night to demand an end to youth violence there, and another group in New Orleans also gathered the night before to tackle the issue.

Msgr. Jaime Soto, Hispanic vicar of the Diocese of Orange, said church groups must act as advocates for their communities, but not necessarily become political. Instead, “it’s important for us to identify important political leaders and make sure politics is able to serve the interests of our families.”

Hernandez said the group’s biggest victory has been simply giving the average person a voice.

“One person can’t make change,” Hernandez said, “but with 20,000, I think we can--we have to stick together, and say, ‘This is our home and let’s change it.’ ”