Helper of Homeless May Face Eviction : Costa Mesa Council to Debate Fate of SOS, Which Some Neighbors Say Does Not Belong

Jean Forbath glanced knowingly at the note that the Latina had brought. It was a plea for assistance written by an emergency-room nurse who had treated the 70-year-old woman for a chronic heart ailment.

Forbath, founder and director of SOS (Share Our Selves), pointed to a drawer full of index cards that recorded the woman’s dozens of visits to the SOS center over the years. “This is how many times we have helped her, because no one else will,” Forbath said.

Since 1971, SOS has been serving those caught at society’s bottom rung by offering food, clothes, free medical care and other aid. Last year, it spent about $600,000, most of it from private donations.

Desirability of Clientele

But that effort may soon end, a victim of community conflict over the desirability of SOS’s clientele.

Tonight the Costa Mesa City Council is scheduled to debate whether to evict SOS from its longtime home at the Rea Community Center in the city’s west side. Hundreds of residents, both supporters and opponents of SOS, are expected to jam the council chambers.

“This is about our rights for a quiet, peaceful neighborhood. That’s all we want,” said Barbara Littrell, who lives opposite the center and has urged that SOS be closed.

“We are not against what SOS is doing,” she said. “They just don’t belong in our neighborhood.”

Forbath sees irony in the reaction of such neighbors.

‘More Services, Greater Backlash’

“The more services (for the needy) the community has developed, the greater the backlash,” she said. “It is a counterswell of reaction to any threat to our (status) as a middle-class bastion that Orange County has seen itself as for so long. We have been in Costa Mesa for 19 years, and only now are we having these problems.”

If SOS is forced to leave Rea center, it will probably mean the end of its programs, Forbath said: “We could not afford the rent or meet other restrictions we would encounter if we tried to move to another location.”

Studies of the people SOS serves show that the center is in the right location, she said. According to SOS surveys, the group serves 6,000 to 7,500 people a month, about 5,000 of whom are Costa Mesa residents. Two-thirds of those live within walking distance of the Rea center.

Meanwhile Littrell, who was on a city-government task force to study the impact of SOS on the neighborhood, said she has statistics showing that only about 25% of SOS’s clients are from Costa Mesa.

Both sides have been signing up supporters on petitions to present to the City Council. Forbath said SOS has collected the signatures of more than 3,000 Costa Mesa residents who support SOS, most from west side neighborhoods. Littrell said SOS foes have “thousands” of signatures.

“There are a lot of other organizations in Costa Mesa that have food programs and other assistance,” Littrell said. “I don’t see that these people are going to fall on their faces if this one is closed.”

Early one recent morning, Forbath surveyed the crowd that had already gathered at the center. There were young, white teen-agers, a black man with a toddler, Latina mothers with their children, single men and women, couples with no children.

Most have problems that fall between the cracks in government aid programs, such as the dilemma faced by the 70-year-old Latina. The bill for her emergency visit to the hospital for a heart condition was paid with government health funds, but she had to go to SOS for money to fill her prescription.

By 9 a.m., stub No. 52 had already been picked up. The temperature would reach more than 100 degrees and the clock would reach 1 p.m. before No. 52 was called.

“No. 30, treinta, No. 30, treinta, “ Forbath called through a public address microphone. The volume was turned high because of the constant noise, like a bus station full of adults talking, children playing or crying and people shuffling in and out the door.

To Forbath, who founded SOS 19 years ago, it seemed a fairly quiet, easy day.

No. 30 was a Latina mother with two little girls. The woman struggled with her English, and Forbath struggled with her Spanish.

The woman told about how hard it had been to find work since the new immigration laws took effect. She was broke and wanted to return home to Mexico.

No Forms, No Questions

There were no forms to fill out or questions to test her story. Forbath said the premise of SOS is that it would be worse to withhold money from someone in need than to give money to someone dishonest.

“Nobody is going to get rich off of this, no matter what,” she said. “Anybody who would wait this long to get this little has to need some help.”

Forbath looked up the bus fare to Tijuana and wrote a check to the bus company. Then she wrote another check for $50, money the woman could spend as she pleased. Before the family left, Forbath gave the girls toys: a green, plastic jump rope and two plastic kazoos.

No. 35 was a thin white man about 50 years old with a stubble beard, blue jeans, boots and a big silver belt buckle reading “The State of Texas.” He said he had done “spot labor” lately and used to drive trucks. He had a wife and a 16-year-old daughter. His rent was due, but he would not have any money for two more days.

Forbath asked whether he had ever applied for welfare. “I’ve never been on welfare, and I don’t like it,” he replied, smiling.

Forbath showed him a list of unskilled jobs available and wrote him a $42 check for two nights in a nearby hotel.

There are other social service groups based at the Rea center. Within the former junior high school, surrounded by a neatly clipped lawn, a boys-and-girls club holds its meetings, a day-care center serves senior citizens and another agency serves disabled patients.

There once was a soup kitchen as well, but it was ordered closed by the City Council several months ago after neighbors complained about the people it attracted.

‘Going to Be Bad Apples’

Supporters of SOS, including soup kitchen operator Merle Hatleberg, had hoped closing the charity would relieve some of the congestion around the center and appease unhappy neighbors, leaving SOS free to operate. The City Council agreed to wait and see; a report on the outcome will be presented at tonight’s council meeting.

Littrell said: “We didn’t see any major improvement. When you bring that many people into a neighborhood, there are going to be bad apples who heckle children, cause trouble. . . . We still feel threatened. . . . There are still people sleeping in the park.”

But Costa Mesa City Councilwoman Mary Hornbuckle said police reports do not corroborate allegations that crime has increased around the Rea center or that patrons of the center disturb residents.

“I live close enough to the center that I drive by every day, and I see little impact on the neighborhood,” Hornbuckle said. “I’m still waiting for hard evidence that shows those concerns are real. I’m just hoping reality prevails and that Costa Mesa’s historical, traditional compassion comes through.”

“There are no easy answers,” Councilwoman Sandra L. Genis said. “I have to honestly say that I wouldn’t want to live by the center, so I don’t know if it’s right, as a councilwoman, to say someone else should.

“But at the same time, where do you send all those poor people? It’s difficult, because normally even if you’re in the minority on an issue, if you know you’re in the right you can feel good. But in this case there are so many grays.”