Laguna's ‘alternative sleeping location' for homeless championed by all, but officials would welcome help

Los Angeles Times

02-04-2025

Good morning. It's Wednesday, April 2. I'm Carol Cormaci, bringing you this week's TimesOC newsletter with a look at some of the latest local news and events from around the county.
One of the stories filed last week that caught my eye was written by my Daily Pilot colleague Andrew Turner, whose beat includes the city of Laguna Beach. I've become accustomed to reading stories about city councils who have had their fill of complaints about homeless individuals on the streets and passing laws in hopes of clearing them out of view. But Turner's report about last week's meeting of the Laguna Beach City Council gave me the impression the small community has not only been taking a more compassionate approach, but is willing to continue on that path, at least for the time being.
They'd just appreciate some help from some neighboring cities who seem to be shooing homeless people in the direction of Laguna Canyon where the city-funded and supported 'alternative sleeping location' that is referred to by its acronym, ASL, is set up.
According to the article, community members crowded into Laguna Beach City Hall and waited for three hours until a discussion about whether or not to keep operating the ASL past June 30, the end of the city's fiscal year, came up on the City Council's agenda.
Residents urged the City Council to continue the services offered at the site. The staff report for the discussion offered a handful of options. City Manager Dave Kiff received a round of applause from a relieved audience when he said he would not recommend the closing of the ASL.
But Kiff tempered his remarks that night by acknowledging hard decisions have to be made when budgeting for each year, and it was apparent that shelter and services the city offers to the homeless (a place people can sleep at night, eat and take showers during the daytime, among those offerings) was drawing more unhoused individuals to Laguna.,
'I don't think our shelter resources need to be the region's resources,' Kiff said. 'We've already stepped up well, as Laguna knows. We're home to a youth shelter, the Friendship Shelter and the ASL, which is over 70 beds, if my count is correct, and I worry that we genuinely can't afford to be anything but Laguna-focused in the long term.
'Why have this discussion now? I think part of our approach today is to be prepared for something we think is likely going to happen, and that is an increase of arrivals of unhoused residents from other areas that are heavier on enforcement [of anti-camping ordinances] than we are, and who don't have a shelter or day program services.'
Punctuating Kiff's assertion, Police Chief Jeff Calvert said the city's park rangers have documented over 50 new homeless individuals in the community since October. And, he told the council, his department had learned through interviews that neighboring cities, 'rehabilitation centers, social service agencies and organizations like City Net and Telecare,' were sending homeless to Laguna Beach. 'Word of our ASL services is clearly spreading, leading to an influx of homeless individuals from surrounding areas....This surge is placing a strain on our resources.'
Jeremy Frimond, an assistant to the city manager, noted that running the ASL could more than double. 'Funding is uncertain, so we were not planning on federal funding coming through in the ways that it has the past several years,' he said.
As the discussion continued, it became clear that the City Council would extend the ASL past June 30. An ad hoc committee will work with staff to refine homeless services. But it was clear the council wants other communities to step up and share the burden.
'Nobody else is carrying any water on this in south [Orange] County,' Councilman Bob Whalen said. 'They haven't for years, for decades it's been all us, but the fact that it's all us and the fact that others aren't doing their fair share shouldn't change the outcome on what we should continue to do.'
For readers who'd like more information, Turner's full report on the meeting can be found here. The city staff report for the agenda item is available at the city's website.
• In case you hadn't heard, someone bought the winning Powerball ticket in Saturday's drawing at the 7-Eleven at 763 N. Euclid St. in Anaheim. The prize is estimated at approximately $515 million.
• In recognition of the fact Anaheim is home to more than 20,000 people who identify as Middle Eastern or North African, the City Council approved a resolution at its March 25 meeting endorsing a bill working its way through the state Legislature, the the MENA Inclusion Act. Also known as Assembly Bill 91, it would require state and local agencies, beginning in 2027, to include separate categories for major Middle Eastern and North African groups currently categorized as 'white' in data reports.
• A show called Symphony of Flowers that's expected to soon bathe a portion of Huntington Beach Central Park East with more than 500,000 low-emitting LED lights and 100,000 luminous flowers to be viewed by ticket-holding guests, has raised the ire of community members and conservationists. Concerned citizens banded together as Protect Huntingon Beach last week sued the city, saying it violated the California Environmental Quality Act when the City Council approved a license for Flowers of the Sky, LLC to produce the show on Thursdays through Sundays for about six months.
• A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held March 20 for the $32.9-million Pelican Harbor senior apartments complex in Huntington Beach for low-income and formerly homeless seniors who are at least 62 years old. It's a joint venture of Irvine-based Jamboree Housing Corporation and USA Properties Fund, in partnership with the city of Huntington Beach and County of Orange.
• Several municipalities have been grappling in recent years on how to best to regulate group and sober-living homes in residential neighborhoods seen by community members as public nuisances. Last week, the Mission Viejo City Council gave its approval to a new ordinance to significantly help city officials regulate the homes.
• FEMA and state grant funding to the tune of $334,000 has been secured by the city of Laguna Beach that will be used to mitigate wildfire hazards in Hobo and Diamond canyons, where combustible vegetation abounds.
• Twice in less than a week, Huntington Beach city-owned vehicles were involved in crashes. In the first case, a police officer behind the wheel of a marked patrol car was struck by a black Kia sedan while driving near Beach Boulevard and Yorktown Avenue March 23 at around 10:15 p.m. In the other incident, a city employee was hospitalized with minor injuries last Wednesday after a public works truck was struck by a vehicle that reportedly ran a red light at Goldenwest Street and Slater Avenue.
• Tragedy struck in Irvine last Thursday afternoon when a middle-schooler died at the home of an acquaintance of a self-inflicted gunshot. By Friday, Irvine resident Christian Douglas Yeager, 56, had been booked on suspicion of criminal storage of a firearm and child endangerment in connection with the 13-year-old's death. A police spokesperson said the gun used in the shooting belonged to Yeager, who had not properly secured it. He was not home at the time of the incident, but an adult female family member was there.
• After discovering his home surveillance camera had stills someone stealing his keys from his house, a man whose wallet and cellphone had been taken from his car while he surfed in Newport Beach one day last August recently helped police bust a ring of criminals who had been preying on surfers up and down the coast, knowing they would be out in the water.
• A Fullerton-based contractor who handled taxpayer-funded construction projects in Newport Beach, Anaheim, San Clemente and other cities in multiple counties is facing wage theft allegations. The owner of the company has also been charged with 14 additional felony counts, including intent to evade taxes and falsifying official documents.
• A look at some of the local public safety briefs reported by City News Service over the past few days: — The trial of Jeffrey Olsen, a Newport Beach doctor charged with prescribing and distributing large amounts of unnecessary drugs, is underway. This has been a long saga; in 2020, during the pandemic, U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney dismissed Olsen 's 34-count indictment, a ruling that was overturned in April 2021 by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. — Police this week asked for the public's help tracking down a gunman who on Sunday night killed a 30-year-old transient on the 14000 block of Goldenwest Street, Westminster. Anyone with information was asked to call police at [phone]. — A 23-year-old pedestrian was struck by two vehicles and killed at around 2 a.m. Monday on southbound side of the Santa Ana (5) Freeway in Anaheim, just north of Lincoln Avenue. A witness reported that a white truck hit the pedestrian in middle lanes, the CHP said. It was learned later that a black Honda Civic also hit the pedestrian. — Two teenage boys on an electric scooter were critically injured yesterday afternoon when they were struck by a car on Hewes Street in Orange. They were reportedly riding southbound in the northbound lanes when they collided with a northbound Tesla. The boys are in critical condition at a hospital but expected to survive.
• Paul Anderson, a reporter with City News Service, reported Monday the retirement of Scott Sanders, the attorney with the O.C. public defender's office who brought to light the O.C. Sheriff's Department's illegal use of jailhouse informants in criminal cases.
• Opening Day did not go well for the Angels last Thursday, when they fell 1-8 to the White Sox. It was their 11th season-opening loss in 12 years. But by the weekend things started looking up for the Halos, as they beat the White Sox on Saturday and Sunday. Then, on Monday night they enjoyed a 5-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. Last night (after this newsletter's deadline) former Chicago Cub Kyle Hendricks, a graduate of Capistrano Valley High, was scheduled to make his Angels debut.
• Following a longtime tradition, the sports reporters at the Daily Pilot voted last week on their post-season Girls' Water Polo Dream Team. Gabby Alexson, who played center for Newport Harbor High, took top honors as Player of the Year while Katie Teets was named Coach of the Year for her work with the Laguna Beach High team. Their stories, plus a list of every other member of the Dream Team can be found here.
• Ben McCullough's family worried they would soon lose him because one of the 75-year-old's heart valves didn't close tightly enough and he had been in failing health for months. But, two doctors who constructed a new-to-the-market EVOQUE replacement heart valve devised by Edwards Lifesciences Corp. in Irvine saved his life in December. The Huntington Beach resident was invited to take a tour of the corporation's building last week, where he was thrilled to be surprised by a visit from the two heart surgeons who operated on him, Brian Kolski and Jeffrey Taylor. The complete story on the reunion can be found here.
• The Mesa Water Education Center opened in January, offering more than 20 hands-on stops and stations specially tailored for fifth-graders learning about the earth's climate, weather systems and the water cycle. Mesa Water Board President Marice H. DePasquale told the Daily Pilot for this interesting feature story that more needs to be done to recruit young people by conveying the breadth of water industry jobs.
•. The Yorba Linda Street Legacy program is giving local residents the chance to own a piece of the city's heritage, or their own personal history in town, by purchasing a decommissioned street name sign for $30. To apply for one, visit Yorba Linda's website.
• Knott's Berry Farm's Boysenberry Festival is marking its 10th year celebrating the fruit that launched Knott's in 1920. It opened Friday and will run daily through April 27. Visitors will find food, merchandise entertainment an arts and crafts show and more, reports TimesOC in this feature about the event.
• Those who appreciate the works of California Impressionist artists may want to schedule a trip this spring to the art gallery at San Clemente's Casa Romantica, where masterworks from the James Irvine Swinden Family Collection are on display. On the exhibit's first day, Swinden noted the collection is a testimony to the taste of his mother, Joan Irvine Smith, who began collecting California Impressionist art in the early 1990s. 'Gems of California Impressionism' is on view through June 15. Hours are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday through Sunday. General admission is $8; free on the first Sunday of every month.
Until next week,Carol
I appreciate your help in making this the best newsletter it can be. Please send news tips, your memory of life in O.C. (photos welcome!) or comments to [e-mail].