Is the City of Santa Ana trying to drive the homeless out of the Civic Center?

By: Orange County Catholic Worker – Isaiah House By

For over 25 years we have served hot meals to the homeless gathered in the Civic Center, Santa Ana’s public square. During that time we have also invited women and children to stay in our home; currently over 50 adult women live and dine with us as guests. Many Catholics are unaware that our right to perform those Works of Mercy required by the Greatest Commandment has been abridged in the past and might well be again.

In 2003 the City of Santa Ana threatened to fine our landlord $1000 per day and arrest us for violating the “Mission Ordinance.” This ordinance made serving meals or offering lodging in one’s home illegal, except for profit as a business. We were cited first for offering bread to our neighbors, and for violating the Mission ordinance, and threatened with a year in jail if we failed to evict children and their parents from our home. We declined to do so, and only the intervention of Bishop Soto and a coalition of local pro bono attorneys gained for us an agreement for our continued operation.

At a recent meeting with the City Council, we were told that efforts were underway to make the Civic Center a park. Our volunteers serve over a thousand hot meals there each week, and such service accounts for the majority of service hours Catholic students earn here each week. In other jurisdictions, such transformations (into parks) have invariably resulted in restrictions that eliminated meals served to the poor. This is our City’s stated intention. It is quite likely that Santa Ana might soon restrict, through arrests, our right to serve the poor; Costa Mesa already has.

Because most Catholics couldn’t believe anyone here in Orange County would prevent them from giving hot soup to a homeless widow, or a blanket to a child, our bishops invite us to become aware, through public prayer and political advocacy, of threats to our right as Catholics to serve the poor and vulnerable, whether in public, or even in our own homes.

The Bishops have repeatedly voiced their concern for faithful people in business so that they can continue to live out their faith in daily life. Please pray that the Supreme Court will uphold this basic right! #Fortnight4Freedom

Click here to read Santa Ana City Council Meeting on the History of Homelessness