Sun. Dec 22nd, 2024

SANTA ANA, CA – On May 9, 2019, a Superior Court judge granted the City’s application for an Inspection and Abatement Warrant, which allows City staff to legally enter Union Pacific property and abate public nuisance or dangerous conditions, according to the City of Santa Ana.

On May 22, 2019 at approximately 8:00AM, over 50 City of Santa Ana staff (Code Enforcement, Police Department, Public Works, Parks and Recreation, and Community Development) as well as private contractors, began a large scale service of the inspection and abatement warrant at five locations within the city.

The locations impacted were:
• 1200-1300 E. Edinger
• 1716 S. Santa Fe
• 2500 S. Main/Goetz
• 1000-1100 E. Chestnut/Santa Fe
• 1200-1300 E. Warner

The warrant authorized City staff to enter the private property of Union Pacific Railroad, to perform inspections and abate any dangerous conditions. For example, at the 1200-1300 E. Edinger location (3 blocks south along the railroad right of way), staff discovered over 60 encampments/shanty’s occupied by 16 individuals. Trash and debris was strewn around the area. Staff determined it was imperative, for public health and safety, to immediately abate the dangerous condition. Public works crews and private contractors began cleanup efforts.

Police Officers and representatives of the Orange County Health Care Agency provided outreach to all 16 contacted individuals experiencing homelessness. None accepted services. One (1) individual was arrested for narcotics violations.

This abatement effort comes after months of repeated attempts to ensure that Union Pacific properly addresses their railroad right-of-ways in our City and hold them accountable for their property much like we do with any other property owner. Based on State law and the Santa Ana Municipal Code, the City will be billing Union Pacific for the recovery of the city’s costs required for abatement of these areas. These areas were chosen due to the high number of violations that were visible from the public right-of-way. This is part of the City’s ongoing efforts to address homelessness and the quality of life of all residents.

More information about the totality of the operation will be forthcoming at operation conclusion.

About City of Santa Ana

Santa Ana is downtown for the world famous Orange County, California. As the County Seat, home to a vibrant evening scene and one of the most diverse communities in California, Santa Ana is gaining national attention for its efforts to innovate and address a changing County. Over 1,200 City employees work hard every day to deliver efficient public services in partnership with our community to ensure public safety, a prosperous economic environment, opportunities for our youth, and a high quality of life for residents. Learn more at http://www.santa-ana.org.

author avatar
Art Pedroza Editor
Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

By Art Pedroza

Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

4 thoughts on “The City of Santa Ana got permission to clean up the homeless trash along the train tracks”
  1. I wonder how quick the city council would pass an ordinance to allow the police to more aggressively handle these people who are homeless. I know that there’s a bunch of lawyers who say the homeless have rights to the area however this is getting ridiculous. These lawyers live in Coto De Caza, Irvine, Mission Viejo, Anaheim Hills, Villa Park ect. What if these homeless encampments were relocated to their city or better yet in front of their homes. What rights would they have then? What if we put these homeless people in Floral Park in front of Pulido’s “residence” or in front of each council member’s residence and see how fast they get handled then. I’m getting tired of driving down First St between Main and the 5 fwy and seeing homeless setting up tents. I’m tired of all these damn RV’s with bicycles and other crap on top of it. The Police can only do so much, the city has to find another solution, and more shelters and more low income housing is NOT the answer.

    1. This guy is 100 % correct. The people that live in that area can’t even walk their dogs because of homeless which are openly doing drugs in broad day. Crystal meth and heroin. The police ? Turn the other cheek. They rather leave them in the street instead of getting they car smelly. These homeless prostitutes and wannabe pimps have rights ? I say no and kick them out whenever I seen them. Call the cops and they show up the next day. Laughable stuff by the police. I say relocating them to these “ officials “ area doesn’t sound like a bad idea at all. Short little Pulido would understand the right ?

      1. I don’t think you follow me. I’m not blaming the police. They’re restricted on what they can enforce. I blame the people in charge (IE City Council/voters) for allowing the city to be placed in this situation. California is way too liberal. When they legalized marijuana, they wrote the law in a way that decriminalized all other drugs. So now, if the police catch someone with heroin or cocaine, all they get is a misdemeanor citation which in the long run will turn into a warrant where they’ll get cited out again on. California in general needs to criminalize drugs again. The city council by making Santa Ana a “Sanctuary City” cost them a ton of funding. I read that the police had sanctuary policies in effect since the 70’s, so it was a mute point. All it did was cost Santa Ana federal money that they used to offset other poor decisions the city council had made. Personally, I was born, raised and still live in the city. I love this city. It’s just unfortunate that the people we put in charge have allowed it to get this way. I want the anti camping ordinances enforced. I want the Sanctuary title removed. I want the police to be able to enforce and hold people accountable again. The criminal justice system as a whole is broke, and these band aides people are putting on it are starting to tear. Santa Ana is a beautiful city, but I don’t know if this is where I want to raise kids now.

  2. Charles "Chuck" Pineda, Jr. Former Democratic Candidate for Governor of California,1986-2010 says:

    The international bankers and their minions in America control every aspect of our government. We are never taught anything about the bankers and their central bank system that not only enriches them tremendously, but it enriches them on the American taxpayers back; and one doesn’t read about their central bank empire because they own the mass media outlets nationwide.

    Read about how this European banking system was started by a group of bankers in 1913, and used their minion Woodrow Wilson to sign the legislation creating another central bank calling itself the federal reserve. Alexander Hamilton led the bankers minions to establish a central bank like the Bank of England based on fractional reserves, which creates debt and more debt! HOWEVER, IT MAKE THE BANKING FAMILIES SUPER RICH.

    The trillions of dollars that go to Europeans and their American banking executives should have gone to deal with homelessness and every other economic problem issue facing our nation. Instead of bailing out the too big fail banks as the Obama administration did we should have done what Iceland did with their too big to fail banks; they allowed them to fail, and gave the national debt to them since they created it. Learn about Iceland, Hungary, and Russia on how they got rid of their central banks, and now their nations, keeping their money, have been raising their GDP! ONE BIG HURRAH FOR ICELAND! THEY JAILED THE BANKERS FOR CREATING THE FINANCIAL ECONOMIC PROBLEM.

    I refer you to the Internet because the banking families in Europe and in our nation will not allow their mass media outlets to let the American public know how, legally, they rob our nation of its money, and get us into debt and more debt that does not allow us to financially deal with our domestic problems. WITH THIS FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM WE NOW HAVE A 30 TRILLION DOLLAR DEBT! AND REMEMBER ALL WARS ARE BANKERS WARS..THAT’S ONE OF THEIR SPECIALTIES WARS AND MORE WARS. YET THE BANKERS NEVER FIGHT THEM. NO, IT’S OUR SONS, AND NOW DAUGHTERS, THAT GO INTO HARMS WAY SO THEY, THE BANKERS, CAN FURTHER ENRICH THEMSELVES BY GETTING THE CONTRACTS TO REBUILD THE LOSING NATION, AND, OF COURSE, THEIR NATURAL RESOURCES, AND REPAID WITH INTEREST BY THE WINNING NATION.. SO, WHERE IS THE MONEY TO DEAL WITH ALL THESE DOMESTIC PROBLEMS THAT ARE DRIVING US NUTS (BASED ON WHAT I READ IN THE COMMENTS ABOVE)?

    See us on the Internet/U-tube: Working to end gang violence in East Los Angeles,”1978.

    Charles “Chuck” Pineda, Jr.
    Designer and First Director of the California Youth Authority’s Gang Violence Reduction Project in ELA/Maravilla.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.