Orange County Focus is dedicated on Monday to analysis of community news, a look atwhat’s ahead and the voices of local people. : PERSPECTIVE : Cities Raring to Send Their Homeless Packing : Court Decisions May Inspire Rush of Tougher Laws

For Orange County cities, dealing with society’s unwanted has become not so much a case of “not in my back yard” as “not in my parks and streets.”

With fewer than 1,000 beds to accommodate between 10,000 and 15,000 homeless people in the county, city officials have long worried that their community’s quality of life was threatened by the troubled nomadic population. For years, fears of costly legal battles over complex constitutional issues left cities unable to effectively stem the rising tide of camping, defecating and drug dealing in open public areas.

But now, with a recent boost from the judicial system, cities are taking aim at undesirable behavior in an effort to reclaim public property. A new wave of laws modeled after a pioneering 1992 Santa Ana anti-camping ordinance is set to break across the county.

The state Supreme Court upheld the law this April, disagreeing with homeless advocates who contended it unfairly singled out people because of their status and violated the constitutional right to travel freely. One of the toughest laws of its kind nationally, the Santa Ana ordinance prohibits using a sleeping bag or blanket in parks, parking lots or sidewalks, and punishes violators with up to six months in jail.

With a green light from the courts, the Tustin City Council is poised to become the first city to approve such an anti-camping ordinance since the court decision. The council is scheduled to give its final endorsement today.

“Every time someone tried to do something about this problem,” said Tustin Mayor Jim Potts, also a veteran Irvine police officer, “the liberal courts said you can’t do that. It was totally crazy. You can’t have a society without controls.”

At least half a dozen cities--Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Laguna Hills and San Clemente--already are considering enactment of similar laws. The court decision also revives anti-camping laws in Orange and Fullerton, which had temporarily suspended enforcement pending a definitive legal ruling.

Cities seem eager to follow Santa Ana’s lead for two main reasons. First, they no longer fear waging an expensive legal battle to uphold the law, especially in a time of limited budgets. More important, cities, even those such as Tustin that currently have few problems, worry the homeless may drift into their own towns now that they are unwelcome in Santa Ana.

“I call it the ketchup theory,” said Costa Mesa Councilwoman Sandra L. Genis, who would support a law against encampments, but probably not one that bans merely sleeping in a public park. “When you eat a big juicy burger with lots of ketchup and you take a bite--splat--it falls out the other side. Then you’ve got a bigger mess on your hands.”

The anti-camping ordinances come on the heels of laws passed over the past two years that outlaw “aggressive panhandling,” a particular problem on streets and parking lots. In Orange County, Anaheim was among the first cities to impose the ordinance that carries fines for people who are threatening or intimidating in their bid for money. (Courts have ruled ordinary panhandling, without the menacing manner, is protected by free speech.)

However, both sets of laws that regulate streets and parks are rarely enforced. But, said Costa Mesa Councilman Peter F. Buffa, “Just the enactment has a significant impact.”

In Santa Ana, the makeshift shelters that occupied the Civic Center Plaza in the summer of 1992 are long gone. And officials report no prosecutions or citations have been issued based on the anti-camping ordinance since it was upheld in April.

“We had lost control of the area,” said Assistant City Atty. Robert J. Wheeler, who notes the homeless still may sleep in the plaza overnight, but must move along in the morning. “This law has been a complete success.”

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A lack of prosecutions and tent facilities in parks doesn’t mean the problem is solved, argue homeless advocates. Far from it.

“If it makes you feel more secure, Mr. Politician, to wave your flag and say we passed an ordinance, go ahead,” said Santa Ana attorney Lloyd Charton, who challenged the city’s anti-camping law. “But you aren’t going to stop the flow of those people, and they are going to have to sleep somewhere.”

Cities have had some setbacks in their attempts to control public space. After a challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union, Anaheim repealed a seldom-used law in June that barred people with drug convictions within the past three years from using city parks.

Anaheim officials blinked because they didn’t want to commit the financial resources for a protracted legal fight. But officials are determined as ever to protect the city’s territory.

“We want public space to be safe and clean and convenient,” Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly said. “It’s simply a matter of finding the tools and methods that are appropriate.”