Thursday, November 27, 2003

Santa Ana cites complaints in bid to shut homeless shelter
City says transients loiter at nearby businesses and that Isaiah House violates zoning laws.


By JIM HINCH
The Orange County Register


SANTA ANA – City officials, citing complaints that the indigent loiter around nearby businesses and urinate in public, are moving to shut down a homeless shelter that has operated for nearly a decade on a tree-lined
street near downtown.

A city code enforcement administrator earlier this month ruled that Isaiah House, which serves 3,000 meals a day and provides beds for up to 150 homeless people, violates zoning laws by operating in a residential neighborhood.

The sprawling Craftsman-style shelter run by a live-in group of self-described Catholic socialists has until January to shut down, appeal to the City Council or face prosecution. City Attorney Joe Fletcher said Wednesday
that he will determine whether to file a civil suit or press criminal charges.

The ruling has left shelter operators scrambling and residents scared they will be out on the street for the holidays.

"To be honest, I'd still be out there using (drugs) and my kids would have been taken from me" without Isaiah House, said Tracey Wallice, who landed at
the shelter five months ago after leaving jail for methamphetamine possession. Now, Wallice's kids are in school, she's in rehab and she just qualified for a state housing subsidy that will soon put her in an apartment.

"This place is a blessing. It really is," she said.

Ken Adams, Santa Ana's deputy director of planning and building, said code enforcement officers began inspecting Isaiah House after receiving complaints over the summer from a nearby bakery.

Adams said the city has received no complaints from nearby residents, who sometimes line up at the shelter themselves for grocery giveaways. But making Santa Ana the repository for Orange County's homeless "puts a huge burden on us," he said.

"The amazing thing about this institution is that it's funded by a series of lawyers and you ask, 'Would you want this near your home?' And the answer is no. But it's always OK if it's in Santa Ana."

Isaiah House is owned by Steve Dzida, a Costa Mesa attorney who attends Sts. Simon and Jude Catholic Church in Huntington Beach. He charges about $1,200
per month in rent, enough to pay taxes and maintenance.

The live-in staffers are members of Catholic Worker, a religious movement that believes Christians are called to serve the poor. They earn no salary, eat with the homeless they serve and rely on volunteers from parishes, mosques, churches and schools.

Wednesday evening, University of California, Irvine, students passed blankets down a staircase while high-school students sliced turkey in the kitchen, homeless people unloaded food from vans and Linda Martin, a parishioner at La Purisima Church in Orange, assigned volunteer tasks to her children and their friends.

Dwight Smith, who oversees the shelter with his wife, Leia, said that if Isaiah House shuts down, most residents will be on the streets. Some other
Orange County shelters are full, don't accept families or limit stays, Smith said. The Fullerton Armories, an emergency shelter that opened Wednesday,
fills with single men, making it bad fit for Isaiah House families, Smith said. A similar shelter in Santa Ana opens Dec. 3.

"It's not fair to these families," said Smith, adding that police often knock on the shelter's door late at night to drop off homeless people they pick up.

Dzida said he won't appeal to the City Council. He is convinced that officials, busy sprucing up downtown with loft apartments and upscale restaurants, want to eliminate his shelter.

Adams said construction downtown has nothing to do with action against Isaiah House, which he termed a "code enforcement issue."

City Councilman Mike Garcia, himself a Catholic, said he plans to call the city manager to "see what options there are" for keeping the shelter open.

"I think it's unfortunate this is happening, given the timing of it, especially," said Garcia. "Hopefully something can be worked out to help these folks."