6 NEWS
SANTA ANA COLLEGE el Don/eldonnews.org • MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2015
VICTIM / Develia Zaragoza has been residing in the Civic Center Plaza and has had her personal belongings confiscated and trashed by the police multiple times.
HOMELESS ENGAGE COMMUNITY LEADERS
The Civic Center Roundtable
faces off against Santa Ana
police to fight against the
criminalization of transients.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY
R. NICANOR SANTANA
T
he homeless sought shade under trees and buildings as the
humid October sun beat down
on them. City officials and federal
employees in business suits and
crowds of children in school
uniforms passed them by, weaving
through their personal belongings,
scattered along the Walk of Honor
and Civic Center Plaza in Downtown Santa Ana.
They’re there, but not there.
“There’s no place for the homeless to go, unless you want them
in the riverbeds behind your
businesses or in your backyards,”
said Larry “Smitty” Smith. “As far
as places to go or shelters for the
night, there are none.”
Smitty is a member and spokesperson of the Civic Center Roundtable, an advocacy group founded
by two community members, and
staffed by homeless.
More than 4,500 homeless live
in Orange County, up five percent
from five years ago. The largest
number, or about 1,500, live in
Santa Ana, according to the
Orange County Commission to
End Homelessness.
In January, the U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban Development distributed $19.5 million
in grants to county agencies and
nonprofit organizations. Since
1996, the agency has allocated
$206 million. Most of that has
gone to nonprofit organizations
serving Santa Ana’s homeless.
“Food and clothing are not the
only needs the homeless face,”
Civic Center Roundtable founder
Massino Marini said.
The Roundtable meets every Fri-
day at 3:30 p.m. to hear concerns
and gather information from the
homeless community.
They document the confiscation
of unattended items and the daily
confrontations with police and
city officials. Based on that information, they craft proposals that
are then discussed with city and
county of ficials.
Aside from lobbying the city
to build a permanent homeless
shelter, the Roundtable is fighting
the police department’s policy
of searching and taking belongings, as well as handing out $500
camping ordinance tickets. Such
policies, Roundtable members say,
lead to criminalizing, instead of
helping, the homeless.
“Some people are severely mentally ill and need medicine. People
are not getting all their stuff back,”
Smitty said.
He said he joined the Roundtable last year after police targeted
and seized donations from church
congregations and nonprofits.
In a video taken by a member of
the Roundtable, a tractor is seen
picking up belongings and dumping them into a large city-owned
truck. Such items are trashed or
auctioned if they are not redeemed within 90 days.
“It’s a much larger problem
than just a police problem; it’s a
societal issue. The expectation is
that police officers will be experts
in mental illness and social work
and all kinds of different areas, but
that’s not the reality of it,” Santa
Ana Police Chief Carlos Rojas said.
Last November, the Roundtable’s
efforts to get the city to open a 24hour shelter failed after residents
rejected the idea. Along with the
Commission to End Homelessness,
the group is working on a
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ROUNDTABLE
1500 Homeless people
living in Santa Ana, the
largest such group in
Orange County
4500 Homeless people
live in Orange County, an
increase of five percent
from five years ago.
206 Million dollars have
been allocated to help aid
the homeless since 1996.