Lawyers File Suit on Behalf of Shelter

In a show of legal and political force, lawyers from 14 firms filed suit in federal court Tuesday contending that attempts by Santa Ana officials to rein in a crowded homeless shelter infringe on religious freedoms guaranteed by the 1st Amendment.

The legal action is the latest volley in a controversy that pits the Orange County Catholic Worker’s right to pursue its religious mission -- to feed, clothe and shelter the poor -- against the city’s right to enforce zoning codes.

The two-story Isaiah House, operated on a residential street by seven Catholic Worker staffers who have taken a vow of poverty, provides about 10,000 meals for the poor each month and shelters more than 140 people -- mostly women and children -- on busy nights.

“The city is digging in its heels and taking a stance” against the Catholic Worker and the homeless, said Edmond M. Connor, one of the lawyers who volunteered their services. “We want to tell them this is not acceptable with the Orange County legal community.”

The consortium of lawyers, which announced the suit at a press conference at the Catholic Worker home, includes five former presidents of the Orange County Bar Assn.

Santa Ana City Manager David N. Ream said the city’s intention wasn’t to displace people who live at the shelter but to eliminate a Sunday morning meal that draws 100 additional poor and homeless people into the neighborhood.

Ream said no residents had complained about the activities at the two-story Craftsman house on Cypress Street, but that some nearby businesses had.

Dwight Smith, who runs the Catholic Worker house along with his wife, Leia, said he wouldn’t quit serving the Sunday meal.

He sees it as a form of Communion.

“It’s the most religious thing we do,” Smith said. “Until the homeless break the law, can they please have some breakfast?”

Many of the lawyers involved in the federal suit were part of a similar consortium that represented about 60 homeless people arrested by Santa Ana police in 1990 on offenses including littering and pulling leaves from a tree.

Authorities asserted that the roundup at the county’s Civic Center was prompted by complaints and a growing concern about crime. But a Superior Court judge rebuked the Police Department’s tactics as discriminatory and illegal.

Criminal charges against the homeless were dropped and, after negotiations, the city agreed to compensate those arrested.

Last month the city declared the Catholic Worker operation a public nuisance, citing it for operating a mission without permits and erecting illegal backyard tents used to store food and clothes and shelter the homeless from the cold.

Smith said that if the city could find a safer place for his guests, he would gladly drive them there. Orange County has more than 25,000 homeless people but only 2,200 beds in shelters, according to county statistics.

Santa Ana officials originally gave the group until last week to comply.

But in an effort to work out a compromise, the city hasn’t enforced the deadline.

The federal lawsuit seeks to allow the Catholic Worker to continue its operation without interference from the city.

Wylie A. Aitken, a Santa Ana attorney and chairman of the Democratic Foundation of Orange County, a fundraising arm of the Democratic Party, said he hoped that an amicable agreement could still be reached with the city.

“All [the Catholic Worker wants] is to simply live in peace,” he said.

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.

The local group, which relies on private donations, rents its house for about $1,200 a month from Roman Catholic attorney Steven J. Dzida.

Though the Catholic Worker is not affiliated with the Diocese of Orange, Bishop Tod D. Brown said he hoped it would be able to continue its mission unimpeded.

“The Catholic Worker for a long, long time has been an invaluable service for the poor of Santa Ana,” Brown said. “And I would pray for success in their attempt to find assistance through the court system.”