City to Give Shelter a Break

In an effort to settle a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of a Catholic Worker homeless shelter, Santa Ana city officials said Friday they will suspend efforts to shut down the facility and reconsider the zoning laws that it is violating.

Seven Catholic Worker staffers, who run the two-story Isaiah House on a residential street, provide about 10,000 meals for the poor each month and shelter more than 140 people on busy nights.

City officials in December declared the shelter a public nuisance, citing an ordinance restricting missions to industrial areas.

On Jan. 27 a group of lawyers from 14 law firms filed a federal lawsuit against Santa Ana, alleging the city’s enforcement efforts violate religious freedom guaranteed by the 1st Amendment.

In the agreement announced Friday, city officials said they would suspend enforcement actions and recommend that the City Council repeal the zoning law as a first step toward reconsidering what regulations should replace it.

City Atty. Joseph Fletcher said city officials realized the mission ordinance is out of step with current conditions, although Santa Ana still must determine whether a shelter is appropriate in a residential neighborhood.

The City Council will be encouraged to repeal the ordinance at a special meeting Tuesday at 2 p.m., Fletcher said.

Then, Fletcher said, city officials “want to step back and have a constructive dialogue.”

“We have transitional living houses throughout the city,” he said. “We want to look at this land-use designation. The city is not against care for the homeless.”

Of particular concern, however, is a Sunday breakfast that draws an additional 100 homeless people into the neighborhood.

Although residents haven’t complained, a few business owners have.

Friday’s announcement “is a positive step in the right direction,” said Wylie Aitken, one of the attorneys representing Catholic Worker. “We are hoping to work out an agreement with the city.... They still have not told us that they are going to reach an agreement that the house will be able to function in peace.”

The city has asked the law firms to extend by 60 days the deadline for the city to respond to the lawsuit so the city could work toward an agreement with Catholic Worker.

The Orange County Catholic Worker, which has no formal structure and operates on a monthly budget of $12,000, is affiliated with a poverty-relief movement called the Catholic Worker that has more than 150 independent “houses of hospitality” and farming communes worldwide.