Costa Mesa opens short-term homeless shelter for 50 people

At least 20 more people are off the streets and under a roof since Costa Mesa became the latest Orange County city to create an emergency shelter to address the region’s homeless crisis.

That’s how many clients were already checked into the new 50-bed shelter when it officially opened Friday, April 5, on the grounds of Lighthouse Church of the Nazarene, city officials said.

The church already ran a bad-weather shelter and is leasing property to the city for the new facility, which is made up of modular buildings that house beds, showers and storage for clients’ belongings. Nonprofit Mercy House, which also operates the county-owned Bridges at Kraemer Place shelter in Santa Ana, is running the Costa Mesa shelter.

“We’re already seeing positive results from opening the shelter,” Mayor Katrina Foley said, including chronically homeless people who had been seen on city streets for years getting moved into the shelter, recuperative medical care or other housing with support services.

Through the city’s efforts, people who landed on the streets after they were unsuccessful in Costa Mesa’s sober living homes now have plane tickets to rejoin family in other states, Foley said, and one homeless woman was able to shower for the first time in two months.

“It’s morally irresponsible to continue to allow people to live on the streets and the sidewalks and in the parks and not care for our community,” she said.

The city also is in escrow to buy a building just west of John Wayne Airport that could become a permanent emergency shelter. Officials hope to have it up and running in about a year, at which point they would close the Lighthouse church facility.

Anaheim and Santa Ana also have recently opened shelters, Buena Park and Placentia are exploring potential sites and Huntington Beach just nixed a proposed location amid a community outcry. Officials are looking for a new spot.

All that activity stems from an explosion of homelessness in Southern California the past few years and federal lawsuits filed on behalf of homeless people who were forced out of their Santa Ana River Trail encampment last year.

Cities that have made plans to address the issue in their community have been released from the lawsuit. Those who haven’t taken steps to provide emergency shelter could be barred from enforcing rules against camping in public.