Strip Club, Freeway Are Weapons in Fight for Homeless Shelter

Orange County’s Board of Supervisors may finally vote today to acquire property for a year-round homeless shelter.

Twice before the board seemed poised to replace its seasonal, temporary homeless shelter in Fullerton only to have public opposition sink it.

However, this time, one of the proposed shelter’s neighbors is a strip bar, so that is expected to answer any complaints of how an influx of transients could affect the neighborhood, Orange County Supervisor Shawn Nelson said. It is also near a Riverside (91) Freeway onramp.

The property at 1000 N. Kraemer Place is also next door to the Piano Empire Megastore at 3035 E. Las Mesa St.

Nelson said he understood the concerns of the store’s owner, Chris Vance, but he noted the shelter was meant to get the homeless off the street and that the transients were unlikely to frequent the store unless, he joked, they were considering “buying a piano.”

Nelson said he expects opponents will come to the board with a common theme of not objecting to the homeless and wanting to help, “but not here.” He told City News Service that while the Kraemer Place project is not flawless, “I’m not going to let perfect get in the way of good.”

Nelson, who has been actively involved over the past few years in trying to address the county’s homeless problem, said the proposal offers the best possible solution of providing year-round help to transients.

To critics who worry about what impact a shelter will have on the area, Nelson has noted often in the past he used to live near the temporary shelter in Fullerton.

“I didn’t see any actual problems other than the homeless rush hour, which was a self-inflicted problem” because the transients began lining up a couple of hours before the shelter opened to make sure they got a spot, Nelson said. “It was a manufactured problem ... that wasn’t necessary.”

Last year, the board thought it had an agreement with Santa Ana to open a shelter in an industrial area at 1217 E. Normandy Place, but Santa Ana City Council members took back their endorsement when pressured by neighbors.

In 2013, county officials figured they had located an ideal site in a shuttered furniture store in Fullerton, but, again, the City Council there voted it down by a 3-2 margin. Neighborhood opposition again helped kill the project.

During the winter, most of the area’s chronically homeless rely on the county’s Armor Emergency Shelter Program, which has about 400 beds, but has to close when it gets warmer.

Nelson said another advantage of a year-round shelter is it would provide more long-term assistance to transients to help them get a leg up toward self-support.

The 24,384-square-foot Kraemer Place warehouse and 13,824-square-foot office space was built in 1975 on 1.86 acres, according to county officials. It was home to a commercial heating, ventilating and air-conditioning contractor.

The purchase price for the building is $4.25 million, which was approved by board in June.

City News Service; Photo: Patch Archive