Santa Ana Tells Group to Halt Aid to Homeless : Housing: Legal Aid Society cannot use lot for storage, so carts, bikes and bedrolls must go.

The Legal Aid Society of Orange County was notified Wednesday that it is breaking the law by allowing homeless people to store their bedrolls, bicycles, pots and pans in its parking lot.

The organization will ask its informal tenants to remove their belongings but won’t ask them to stop sleeping in the lot, although the request may have that effect, Legal Aid Society attorney Harry Simon said.

“We can’t disobey the law,” he said. “We’re a legal office.”

Police Lt. Dave Nick said that nearby residents and businesses have complained for almost a year of unsightly bundles and shopping carts and have been bothered by panhandlers. The complaints, he said, had become a “general outcry.”

Simon acknowledged that the homeless people become unruly at times, and that drug use has occurred.

But Simon said he is frustrated because the city is failing to address the fundamental reasons for the homelessness: a lack of affordable housing.

“I have asked the city where the homeless could go,” Simon said. “And the answer is always the same: ‘We don’t know, but not here.’ ”

On Saturday, police said, they removed 24 shopping carts from the Legal Aid lot at 902 N. Main St.

On Wednesday, one corner of the lot held bundles made up of everything from blankets to bicycle tires. Five bicycles leaned against a pole, and a shopping cart, overflowing with blankets, sat in the corner.

Tim Ray, 27, said he has been storing a bedroll and two backpacks in the lot for 1 1/2 years. Ray said that having to move his belongings will not drive him out of the city.

“I think, straight out, each one of them who wants to do that ought to be homeless, and then see if they still want to do that,” he said.

A letter from the city’s planning and building agency received by Legal Aid on Wednesday says city code prohibits outside storage in the area.

Robyn Uptegraff, executive director of the agency, said the city will inspect the parking lot within a few weeks. If it isn’t cleaned up, the city will recommend a $160 fine, she said.

The Legal Aid Society had fought a city ordinance prohibiting encampments in the nearby Civic Center, which drove out homeless people. Shortly after losing that legal battle, which reached the California Supreme Court, up to 20 people began living out of the parking lot earlier this year, Simon said.

Ray and another homeless man said up to 40 people spill into adjacent parking lots at bedtime.

In addition to talking to homeless people, Simon said, the Legal Aid Society will post flyers on the bundles of property, the building, and any remaining shopping carts asking the homeless to remove their belongings.