ANAHEIM : Welfare Office Close to Getting New Home

The county’s Social Services Agency is close to an agreement that would relocate a controversial welfare office that Anaheim residents have blamed for creating crime and loitering at a nearby park, county officials said Monday.

The county is completing a lease agreement that will move the current Homer Street welfare office, near La Palma Park, to a commercial area at 2929 White Star Ave., said Robert A. Griffith, chief deputy director of the social services agency.

He added, however, that the deal is also contingent on the county’s selling the current welfare office site to the city. “That’s where the money for the new lease will come from,” he said.

The move was prompted by complaints from city officials and nearby residents, he said, adding that the current office is too old and too small to meet the county’s needs.

Last year, several council members called upon the county to move the office. County officials were willing to relocate, but said they lacked the funds.

Orange County Supervisor William G. Steiner made the relocation a priority of his shortly after getting into office last March. He said local community groups brought the problem to his attention.

“I’m very encouraged that we are going to move this facility into a more appropriate area,” Steiner said Monday. “It’s something that I’ve been pushing pretty hard for.”

The welfare office has been at its Homer Street location for more than a decade and has been a target of complaints for several years.

Residents charged that welfare recipients loiter in the park and drink alcohol or use drugs there after picking up their welfare checks.

The news that the welfare office relocation was imminent pleased residents near the park.

“This is something that we’ve been working hard for,” said Harald Martin, a police officer who lives in the area. “We’re pretty happy about this.”

Martin and members of a group called Somebody dumped cow manure in the park last year to draw attention to the drug use there.

“By moving the office, they’re going to remove the customers of the drug dealers,” Martin said. “We should see a marked decrease in crime.”