Santa Ana files second homeless-related lawsuit
Santa Ana officials this week filed a second lawsuit related to homelessness and its impacts on residents and police services in town.
The city sued the Mental Health Association of Orange County, which runs a public drop-in center in Santa Ana for homeless people with mental illness or other disorders.
Santa Ana, the lawsuit states, “brings this action to protect the health, safety, and welfare of its citizens.”
The lawsuit, in Orange County Superior Court, is one of two filed by the city on Monday, January 13. The other one, filed in federal court in Santa Ana, is against Orange County and the cities of Dana Point, San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano. In the federal case, Santa Ana argues that it is being forced by the county and the cities to take in and provide shelter for an unfair share of homeless individuals, impacting Santa Ana residents and emergency services. The city accuses the county and the three South County cities of pushing their homeless into Santa Ana, an allegation that Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do called “political grandstanding.”
RELATED: Santa Ana sues Orange County, Dana Point, San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano over homeless
In the lawsuit against the non-profit Mental Health Association, Santa Ana asks the court to declare the Homeless Multi-Service Center at 2416 South Main Street a public nuisance, seeking to at least temporarily – if not permanently – shut it down.
Orange County has a contract with the association to run the center. County officials declined Wednesday to comment on the litigation.
During a 19-month period that ended in early January of last year, Santa Ana police answered at least 249 calls linked to the center. These included reports of assault, rape, attempted suicide, domestic violence, disorderly conduct, robbery and indecent exposure. The calls represent “a disproportionate amount of time policing, patrolling, and responding to calls” at a center where employees “often refuse” police requests for information or assistance, according to the lawsuit. Meanwhile, in an 18-month window that ended earlier this month, county fire officials have responded to the center some 73 times.
“The City of Santa Ana has limited police and emergency resources. Those limited resources have been inordinately taxed by the nuisance conditions at the MHA facility,” the lawsuit states.
The county-funded facility also represents a nuisance to nearby businesses and neighbors, who complain about it “on a daily basis,” according to the lawsuit. The city also alleges that the center is not in compliance with the city’s zoning code.
The Homeless Multi-Service Center is open from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day, all year long, according to its website. Services include counseling, substance abuse prevention and education, a light breakfast, snacks and hot lunches, access to showers and laundry services, local telephone calls, clothing, bus vouchers, a place receive mail and and referrals to mental health services.