UPDATE: After hearing the Catholic Workers concerns, Santa Ana city
officials contacted the contractor who agreed to move the fence between
the benches and the grass. Ta da!
Santa Ana's Civic Center is picking on the homeless again, according to Orange County's best Catholic, Dwight Smith.
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Since 1987, Smith and his wife Leia, have been sheltering, feeding and clothing more than 100 of Santa Ana's homeless every day and night at their home, better known as the Isaiah House.
Smith also feeds the homeless at Santa Ana's Civic Center, in the hotspot promenade where the homeless have been making use of the benches for years. The way it typically works: the homeless wait in line for a hot meal, sit down on a bench, eat, and enjoy. Simple!
No, not really. Last week Smith found a chain-link fence surrounding the lawn and the benches, ostensibly to protect the unsprouted grass seed. Smith claims it's a calculated
To summarize: the keeper of the lawn says the fence is protecting their green investment (and some asphalt?). The Catholic Woker says the fence is to keep the homeless from getting too comfortable.
But there is a solution! Put the fence between the grass and the benches! Ta Da! I should run for public office.
Your move, Lopez.
