Shelter Sets Off Storm : Home for Abuse Victims Plans Move, But New Neighbors Balk

Former President George Bush picked the Eli Home, which offers emergency shelter and counseling to victims of abuse, as his 338th Point of Light.

President Bill Clinton gave the nonprofit organization one of the 40 Presidential Citations handed out this year.

But in Anaheim Hills, the shelter is casting an unwanted shadow.

Residents say they will turn out in force at next month’s City Council meeting to fight a plan to move the Eli Home to a three-story house in their neighborhood, where home prices start around $500,000.

The Eli Home, cramped in its current Orange headquarters, wants to renovate a dilapidated house at 100 South Canyon Crest Drive.

“It’s a perfect location and size for us,” said Lorri Galloway, executive director of the organization. “We want to be in a nice neighborhood in a nice atmosphere.”

The structure, which has been declared “unsafe to occupy” by city authorities, would be repaired by volunteers using donated materials, according to Galloway, who is also a 17-year resident of Anaheim Hills. Because of the poor condition of the building, the Eli Home was able to purchase it for $125,000.

If the council approves the plan at a public hearing Aug. 2, the home could be open within six months. The upgraded building would accommodate up to seven families instead of the four or five at the home’s Orange facility.

Both shelter and halfway house, the organization’s main focus is battling child abuse, though it also serves the mothers of young victims. Annually, the shelter aids more than 1,000 clients, mostly youngsters who have suffered emotional, physical or sexual abuse.

Including the Eli Home, there are 24 such emergency child shelters in the county, said Galloway. It is not uncommon for each to have as many as 75 people on a waiting list during the peak abuse periods, during the summer and Christmas holidays.

Child care advocates say it is always difficult to find suitable locations for such homes, which they say work best in residential settings. And, once having found a site, Galloway said, sponsoring organizations often encounter community resistance.

Nevertheless, Anaheim Hills residents quickly learned that others in their city have little sympathy for their fight. After an acrimonious five-hour hearing in March, the Planning Commission voted 6-0 to approve the Eli Home’s request.

“We have a real P.R. problem,” said April Hughes, who lives near the proposed site. “We look like the crazy rich people who are opposing the poor abandoned few.”

Added Ken Hall Sr., who lives down the street from the proposed site: “If you oppose this, it’s like you oppose God, America and apple pie.”

While praising the good deeds of the Eli Home, the residents nevertheless argue they have good reason to fight the move.

First, they assert, the new home could pose a safety risk to the neighborhood by attracting the abusers of its residents. And, the home is too easy to find.

“It’s clearly visible from the road,” Hall said. “And as we know from the whole O.J. (Simpson) thing, when a spouse comes around bad things can happen.”

Some suggest the organization find a more secluded spot.

Secondly, residents maintain the home is essentially a business, and if it’s allowed in the neighborhood, they fear a convenience store might be next.

“Our neighborhood feels it’s being battered too,” Hall said. “We feel like this business is being forced on us.”

But Galloway insists these views are uninformed.

In its 11 years, the home has never had an instance of violence from a disgruntled parent or spouse. In addition, Galloway conducted a survey of 24 other shelters in Orange County this month, which found none have experienced a violent incident involving an angry parent or spouse.

“The chances of any violence occurring at our home is slim to none,” Galloway said.

Furthermore, Galloway said, the nonprofit home is not a business. It derives less than 3% of its $250,000 annual budget from client fees, which are set on a sliding scale. The Eli Home operates almost exclusively on grants and donations, she said.

In fact, the only reason the agency charges any fee at all is to make clients feel they have a stake in their treatment.

“If everything is free, people tend to think ‘so what?’ ” Galloway said. “But if they are paying for counseling, they tend to take it more seriously.”

Galloway contends the neighborhood opposition is simply an example of not-in-my-back-yard mentality.

“It’s important for Anaheim Hills neighborhood to understand that no one is immune from child abuse,” Galloway said. “We all must take responsibility to prevent it.”

But residents respond such criticism is unfair.

“That’s the easiest thing to say,” said Hughes, a nurse practitioner. “We aren’t those kind of people. We aren’t that kind of community.”