ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Board’s Courageous Shelter Vote

It would have been easy for the Board of Supervisors to take a powder when it came time to make a decision about a controversial shelter for the homeless mentally ill. The County Planning Commission had already recommended against it, and the neighborhood where the shelter was to be situated was up in arms. But, instead, the board did the right thing in approving the 12-bed facility, which will be in El Modena, an unincorporated area near Orange.

Most of the credit for the board’s favorable 3-0 vote (two members were absent) must go to Supervisor Don R. Roth, whose district includes El Modena. Roth, during a rancorous hearing on the shelter earlier this week, came up with a compromise proposal imposing strict operational and admittance policies on the shelter, the first of its kind in Orange County. That got him the votes of board Chairman Roger R. Stanton and Supervisor Thomas F. Riley.

Though the restrictions didn’t placate angry residents who came to testify at the hearing, they should go a long way toward assuring the area that the facility, which should open in about six months, will be a good neighbor.

It also helps that the well-respected Episcopal Service Alliance, which runs a homeless shelter for women in Orange and a shelter for families in San Clemente, will operate the facility. Credit for the board’s approval should also go to the mental health organizations that rallied behind the alliance when the issue came up for public hearing.

Had the facility not been approved, the Episcopal Service Alliance would have been forced to return $356,000 in state money intended for the project. That would have been tragic in view of the need for housing mentally ill homeless people in Orange County. Experts estimate that as many as 40% of the county’s homeless population--now believed to number about 8,000--suffer from mental illnesses.

The Episcopal Service Alliance facility doesn’t deal with more than a fraction of that, of course. But the supervisors deserve credit for giving the alliance the chance to pave the way for others.