Volunteers Ready to Defy City

Citing religious freedom, Catholic Worker Dwight Smith said Tuesday he would refuse to follow city orders to kick more than 100 homeless people -- mostly women and children -- out of his Santa Ana home.

“I’m following a direct command from Jesus,” said Smith, who lives in the Catholic Worker house on Cypress Street with his wife, Leia, and seven other staffers from the poverty-relief group.

“He said to invite the poor, the crippled and helpless into our homes -- he didn’t say invite them into a city-approved church, social hall or homeless shelter.”

Santa Ana Councilman Jose Solorio said he remains hopeful that a compromise can be reached that will balance the needs of the poor with zoning and safety issues involved in housing scores of homeless people in the two-story Craftsman house in a residential neighborhood.

“What they do provides a tremendous service and is of great merit,” Solorio said.

“We might eliminate one problem there and create a hundred problems in different places.”

The Catholic Worker house, also known as Isaiah House, was declared a public nuisance last month at a city hearing.

The group is operating a mission out of a home without permits and has illegal tents -- used to store food and clothes -- in the backyard, according to a city citation.

It was given until next Tuesday to comply, a deadline Solorio said could be extended to promote talks.

The city took action after a nearby business complained about the number of homeless people drawn to the house. No residents in the neighborhood have filed complaints, however.

During a meeting last week, Smith said he told Mayor Miguel A. Pulido and City Manager David N. Ream that if they had a safer alternative for the homeless in Santa Ana, he’d gladly refer his guests there.

But until then, Smith said, even the crowded conditions at his house are better than having women and children on the streets at night -- and to turn them away is asking him to go against the Gospel.

Toward the end of each month, with money from government checks gone, the number of people taking refuge at the Catholic Worker swells to more than 120, including 70 children.

The house has two bathrooms, and its downstairs is without furniture, allowing more space to sleep on the hardwood floors of the living room, dining room and a single bedroom.

Smith, his wife and the other staffers live upstairs.

“To follow the city is to endanger lives,” Smith said. “There aren’t other shelters for these people.”

Pulido and Ream could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.

According to government statistics, Orange County has more than 25,000 homeless and only 2,200 beds in traditional shelters.

A religious land-use watchdog group said that city officials may have standing in local law but that they were infringing on Smith’s constitutional right to exercise his religious beliefs.

“For the Catholic Worker people, this is no doubt part of their religion,” said Patrick Korten, spokesman for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a Washington-based nonprofit.

“If the city of Santa Ana wanted to make sure the homeless are taken care of and religious liberty is respected, they dealt with the situation in the worst possible way.”

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 that has more than 150 independent “houses of hospitality” and farming communes worldwide.

Catholic Worker staffers in Orange County earn room and board plus $10 per week. In addition to housing homeless women, their husbands and children, and disabled men, the Orange County Catholic Worker provides thousands of meals each week, both at the house and at the county Civic Center.