ORANGE : Shelter Opens Its Doors to Mentally Ill Homeless

Orange County officials christened the first homeless shelter for the mentally disabled Tuesday, 2 1/2 years after the county Board of Supervisors overcame neighborhood opposition and approved the facility.

Beacon House, which is run by ESA Inc., should be welcoming its first 12 residents within the week, said the nonprofit group’s executive director, Dennis White. The six-bedroom home is the first to offer comprehensive care to homeless people who have been certified as being mentally disabled, he said.

White acknowledged that the six months of aid and shelter offered by Beacon House will not help a significant number of Orange County’s homeless. An estimated 12,000 people are without shelter, and 33% of them are mentally ill, according to the Orange County Homeless Issues Task Force.

“It’s a dent, but it’s a beginning,” White said. “Most of (the residents) have been sleeping in doorways and under bridges.”

Mentally ill homeless residents already attend day programs run by the county’s mental health services, but they are on their own at night, White said.

Beacon House will provide counseling and try to help able residents find jobs. Others will be placed in halfway houses or other facilities at the end of their stay, White said.

Tuesday’s opening was a relief to directors of ESA, HomeAid, FHP Inc. and other groups that contributed to the home. The project’s first grant came from the California Department of Housing & Community Development in 1986.

ESA had to appeal to the Board of Supervisors in 1992 after being denied a permit by the county Planning Commission. Additional grants gave ESA $356,000 to purchase and renovate the home on Drew Way.

County supervisors gave their approval, but ESA had to agree to a long list of conditions that will guarantee neighbors’ safety.