Frustration and cries for change resonated inside the Casino San Clemente on Wednesday night, March 15, as an audience gathered to discuss issues related to homelessness and public safety in the North Beach Historic District.
The meeting, organized by the North Beach Community Association (NBCA), sought to inform city officials of residents’ recent plight and to ideate suggestions for the city to potentially implement.
Councilmembers Mark Enmeier and Gene James were present, in addition to City Manager Andy Hall and deputies with the Orange County Sheriff’s deputies—the latter of whom served as stand-ins for new Chief of Police Services Jay Christian who couldn’t attend the event.
NBCA representative Ken Poczekaj was the first to give a presentation.
As the area has seen a resurgence of economic prosperity lately with the emergence of businesses such as the Beach Hut Deli and Landers, and the revitalization of the Casino, residents want to keep visitors coming and maintain a good reputation for the district, Poczekaj said.
“But this is our area, where we live every day, (and) we deal with some challenges,” he said. “We really need some help with that, so that’s what this meeting is all about.”
Residents are chiefly concerned with safety for themselves and children, the prevalence of public drinking and drug use near the beach, an inability to use public recreational facilities, and property damage, Poczekaj described, among other matters.
Such recent trends, Poczekaj said, have discouraged many from wanting to visit North Beach over the past five years, a statement that many in audience verbally confirmed.
Poczekaj flipped through numerous photos displaying property damage, purportedly committed by the local homeless population. Images showed that a storage cabinet was broken into, an outlet cover was removed to gain access, trash was left around the Casino and elsewhere, and the wiring inside a streetlight outside the Ole Hanson Beach Club was damaged.
He acknowledged the city’s efforts in enforcing laws and cleaning up the area but added that the number of unhoused people in North Beach has only increased over time.
Casino owner Linda Sadeghi also spoke. She said the constant need to be on high alert and spend money to check for people defecating and sleeping on the premises had worn her out.
“It’s just incessant, and recently, we’ve seen a big uptick, so I will love anytime you guys want to meet,” said Sadeghi. “I’m all for it. Something has to be done.”
Poczekaj also showed pictures of a man checking doors in a complex to see which were unlocked, as well as images of tents, people wandering near El Camino Real and unhoused persons’ public storage of a large amount of personal property.
His final message before passing the microphone to city representatives was that advocacy groups need to stop treating North Beach as the place to come and provide food and other services to homeless people, as that invites more unhoused persons to come to the area.
City Manager Andy Hall said that the City Council has repeatedly told him that addressing the homelessness issue is their top priority. Hall’s presentation included a message of things that people on all sides should agree with, and what the city will do to help the problem.
“If we’re going to end homelessness, not just move it somewhere else, put a Band-Aid on it or put lipstick on a pig … (we must) get people into housing,” he said. “I think that’s really important.”
Hall said people generally struggle with wanting to be charitable and helpful, as well as doling out tough love, even though actions associated with the latter may label people as “uncaring.”
No one wants to see others suffer, he added, but the best course of action is to not make it comfortable to be homeless and to address barriers preventing the reduction of homelessness. He emphasized wanting a clean, safe and caring community, and referenced the council’s direction on March 7 to have staff seek a private security company to help enforce laws banning camping consuming alcohol in public.
“We’re going to be much more aggressive in making sure that people are not camping out at the beach at night,” said Hall. “The sheriff’s department, for the last few nights, has been out on the beach every hour.”
The first thing the city can do is to enforce the laws it already has, he added, and be a community that cares for people while simultaneously holding people accountable.
Councilmember Enmeier spoke about the engagement he and his Homeless Subcommittee partner, Councilmember Victor Cabral, have done with county and nonprofit representatives. He also referenced the Martin v. City of Boise case that makes enforcing anti-camping laws difficult, which received jeers from the audience.
Finding beds for unhoused people is the only way to get around the ruling, Enmeier said, adding that he wanted the city to take a comprehensive approach to homelessness. However, apathy towards solutions beyond utilizing vouchers for local lodging serves as a hindrance.
“I would love for there to be a regional center, and I absolutely believe that would solve a lot of our problems,” said Enmeier. “The one issue on that is that no city wants to build a regional center, and so we need to start grappling with that reality.”
Councilmember James opened with a fiery approach to the issue, contradicting many of the sentiments previously expressed in the meeting.
He referred to the homeless population as that of vagrants facing mental health issues, not a need for housing, who should move elsewhere if they can’t afford to live in their current location. Building a shelter for people who won’t stay inside is “ludicrous,” according to James.
“If this city doesn’t solve this problem in 90 days, you should recall every one of us,” he said.
James shared his feelings that Lisa Bartlett, the former Orange County Fifth District supervisor, didn’t contribute to solving the issue for San Clemente, and claimed that her successor, Katrina Foley wouldn’t help either. The city needs to be aggressive in taking back what is theirs, he continued, as the neighboring cities of Dana Point and San Juan Capistrano don’t face what San Clemente does.
By allocating resources to making unhoused persons uncomfortable, they will move to a different place, said James, and San Clemente does not have the resources to commit to mental health, shelters, and related services.
“I would submit to every one of you to reach out to our so-called County Supervisor, Katrina Foley, and ask what the hell she’s doing about it,” he said. “That county is sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars of mental health programming, and they haven’t done a thing as it relates to the vagrant population.”
James finished by announcing that city staff has been directed to conduct drone surveillance during the dry summer months to find any people in the canyon area where they shouldn’t be and to get ahead of any fires.
Over the course of the final 30 minutes of the meeting, residents took the opportunity to share what suggestions they had for improving their community, as NBCA officials wrote them down in preparation for sharing the list with the City Manager’s office.
Ideas included banning the sale of liquor products containing equal to or less than one-fifth of a gallon in North Beach; asking advocacy groups to stop coming into the area to feed people; providing an ultimatum of telling people to accept services or go to jail; and consistently monitoring North Beach facilities to keep them clean.
Sara Martin wanted the city to ask what Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes is asking deputies in San Clemente to do, and why the city’s beaches look different than other cities.
“(I want) Sheriff Barnes (to be) held accountable, and if he’s not going to do the job, find somebody else to,” she said.
Laurie Hopkins, who shared an anecdote of being afraid to walk her dogs alone at night, had a different question for law enforcement.
“As a resident, what can we do to help the sheriff’s officers?” she asked. “Instead of us saying, ‘You do this, you need to do this,’ what can we do to help?”
Overall, the NBCA compiled a list of more than 20 suggestions to send to the city.
NBCA President Tyler Johnson said that the meeting had specifically been in the works for the last two months, after the developing homeless situation necessitated a two-way flow of information for both city officials and residents.
He said he wanted people to understand who to contact and what their options are with the city, and for city staff to understand the residents’ frustrations.
“Our group’s not here to have a stance,” Johnson said. “Our group is here to make sure that people’s voices are being heard and to be facilitating that. I feel like, in that sense, (the meeting) was a success.”
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