Homeless camping outside a Santa Ana non-profit at center of dispute

What began as a few people sleeping outside El Centro Cultural de Mexico in downtown Santa Ana has, in recent months, grown to more than 40 homeless living in tents in the non-profit’s parking lot, pitting center operators against the city and neighborhood residents who complain of filthy conditons.

The people who run the cultural center said they don’t feel right kicking the homeless off the property and they will not call police and risk criminalizing homelessness. Instead, they want city officials to find those living on their property some shelter and services.

But Santa Ana officials said they are frustrated that El Centro, which owns the property, is allowing the unpermitted campers, and they’ve threatened legal action if the camp is not dispersed.

Late Thursday, the city offered the center a plan to remove the encampment and clean up the area within 45 days. In return, authorities would work to immediately provide portable toilets, a wash station and on-site resource fairs to help the homeless find shelter and services. City officials would also waive $1,800 in citations that code enforcement has levied in recent months against El Centro.

El Centro’s deadline to sign the agreement was late Friday. As of Monday afternoon, that had not happened.

“We’re asking for an extension and hopefully the city manager will give us more time to go over the MOU (memorandum of understanding,)” said Ben Vazquez, a long-time Centro volunteer who visits the site weekly.

“We want to work with the city in a collaborative way,” he said.

The homeless who have made the Centro’s parking lot their temporary home are thankful to not have police called on them, said Vazquez, a teacher at Valley High School. But the encampment, he acknowledged, is not “a long term” solution.

“It’s a difficult situation to be in. We want to do the right thing for folks and also honor this place; it’s a cultural center and a place that does so much good for the city. These are our principles. To stand by community in need,” Vazquez said.

El Centro has been closed during the pandemic but, when open, it offers classes and cultural programs.

If the two sides can’t work out an agreement, city officials plan to seek an abatement warrant from a judge that will allow police and others to move in and clean up the property at 837 N. Ross Street and surrounding alley.

City Manager Kristine Ridge said workers from homeless services provider City Net have visited the site regularly in recent months and helped at least six homeless people move into a local shelter.

“The city’s approach has always been to offer services but as long as they are provided a campground area, some don’t have the motivation to seek shelter,” Ridge said.

There are various facilities that help the homeless in Santa Ana. They include the new county Yale Navigation Center 425-bed shelter that opened last month, the city’s 24-hour emergency shelter called The Link, and a temporary cold weather emergency shelter inside a converted Salvation Army thrift store. In all, there are at least 625 shelter beds in Santa Ana, counting city and county operations.

The situation at El Centro has generated empathy from all sides, including some neighbors who said they feel for those who don’t have a home. Still, since June there have been 80 police calls related to the site, and some locals said the welfare of the homeowners and renters in the neighborhood also must be considered.

“Just because we live in the barrio, we’re lower income, we’re Latino, we shouldn’t have to carry the brunt of this issue,” said Aaron Cornejo, who lives within a block of the center. Cornejo, who has three young children, said he’s had to clean up filthy mattresses, syringes and feces from the alley that backs up his home.

“My alley is their bathroom,” he said of the campers.

Cornejo says he no longer allows his kids to play outside and he worries about possible conflict when they start walking to and from school, the nearby El Sol Academy, which was slated to open Monday, March 15.

“We’re cognizant of the fact there’s a homeless issue here in Santa Ana,” Cornejo said.  “But a concentration of homeless people very close to school and residential areas affects the daily lives of the residents who live here.  We’re already feeling the ravages of COVID-19 and to have this on top of that is devastating to our community.”

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