Anaheim Launches Investigation of Women’s Shelter

A controversial women’s shelter in an upscale Anaheim neighborhood is under scrutiny by the city, which is weighing whether it has grounds to shut it down, officials said Wednesday.

After complaints to the City Council two weeks ago from a group of former residents of Eli Home in Anaheim Hills, the city attorney’s office prepared a preliminary report on the shelter and presented it to the council in a closed session Tuesday.

The shelter, which opened in 1997, was denied an operating permit more than a year ago, but the city took no further action to close it. The facility has never been cited by police or code enforcement personnel, though neighbors and former residents have complained repeatedly to city officials that it is inappropriate for its location.

“The city denied the permit for the project, but it has continued to operate, and the neighbors continue to complain,” Mayor Tom Daly said.

Carol Flynn, deputy city attorney, said operating without a permit is one of the factors that could determine whether Eli Home is allowed to stay open. Another is whether it meets zoning requirements. The city attorney’s office is continuing its investigation of the shelter and will make another report to the council, Flynn said.

Supporters of the shelter say they see a pattern of harassment by some residents and city officials who believe Eli Home and its clientele are too lowbrow for their neighborhood.

“I was told point-blank once by a neighbor that this shelter belongs in downtown Santa Ana, not Anaheim Hills,” said Richard Chavez, a city firefighter and Eli Home board member. “This worthwhile, much-needed organization has been constantly attacked by a bad combination of people who have been unmercifully mean-spirited.”

Chavez said donors to the shelter, as well as churches Eli Home works with, routinely receive anonymous calls spreading “utterly fraudulent allegations.”

“It’s our opinion that the federal government needs to get involved,” Chavez said. “We feel we have a right to have that program in a neighborhood where women and their children will be safe. That neighborhood is safe.”

But a neighbor who has led efforts to shut down the shelter said having Eli Home where it is does not make sense. The building is too small and is dangerously close to a heavily traveled road, Gene Secrest said.

He also questioned whether the shelter does its job. “They claim to serve an amount of people they couldn’t possibly serve,” Secrest said. “It’s a house built on lies.”

Residents have raised questions about Eli Home since 1993, when organizers first proposed a shelter in Anaheim Hills. When the facility opened four years later, the squabbling intensified.