Homeless along Santa Ana River in Fountain Valley ponder next steps as county enforcement looms

For years, Pamela Tansey has referred to her Fountain Valley condominium as the “condo on the prairie.”

She used to sit on her patio at the New Chase condo complex and watch people bike and jog along the Santa Ana River trail a few feet away. It was peaceful, she said — until the tents began to go up.

Homeless people started trickling into the area, near Harbor Boulevard and Edinger Avenue, about a year ago, setting up tents roughly 12 feet from her front door. In the past year, the number of homeless there has grown exponentially, she said.

People clean themselves in view of her windows, defecate into bags and pile trash along the trail, she said. She’s heard arguments in the tents and seen people wrapped in blankets shooting drugs, she added.

In June, she said, a homeless man threw a can of soda and urine onto her patio. She spent three hours cleaning it up.

“It’s horrific that the county has allowed this to happen,” Tansey said. “They need to realize that unless they get their arms around this, it’s only going to get worse.”

Tansey and her neighbors have complained to Orange County officials about the issue, but they say not much had been done until this week, when officials announced they will begin enforcing public access hours on the stretch of the Santa Ana River trail between Huntington Beach and Anaheim.

Beginning Friday, people who are on the trail outside the posted hours of 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. will be considered in violation of state trespassing laws and will be cited, officials said.

The plan also calls for permanently closing the west side of the flood control channel between 17th Street in Santa Ana and Adams Avenue in Huntington Beach beginning Nov. 10, a move that is expected to displace a large population of homeless people who have set up camp along the river. Neighbors and people living in the camps estimate the number at at least 150.

The question of where they will move remains unanswered, but some people have already started leaving.

Homeless people and their advocates say the county is simply pushing the issue down the road instead of solving it.

Lou Noble, an Anaheim resident who has visited the homeless people in the New Chase area, said the county hasn’t opened enough shelters to accommodate everyone who needs help.

Armories might provide temporary shelter for those displaced from the river trail. The National Guard armory in Santa Ana is open as a nightly sleeping area for the homeless during the winter. The Fullerton armory is expected to begin operating as a nighttime shelter Nov. 16.

Some homeless people say they are resistant to shelters because they would have to get rid of their pets and stay in cramped conditions with little or no privacy.

Noble said county officials and homeless advocates need to work together to come up with a solution to get people off the streets permanently instead of shifting them around.

“People don’t really have a concept of who’s out there,” Noble said. “They think they’re all drug addicts and criminals. But we had a recession and a lot of people lost their homes. Where are these people supposed to go?”

But Supervisor Todd Spitzer called the county’s action a “progressive next step” in combating homelessness compassionately while ensuring the safety of nearby residents.

“I will not allow the Santa Ana River trail to become Orange County’s skid row,” Spitzer said in a statement this week.

Scores of tents, tarps and umbrellas line the river trail near New Chase. Many people have tried to make the area feel like home by laying down carpets and placing chairs and lamps in makeshift living rooms.

Ron Hernandez, 55, stood in the drizzle Thursday along the river gathering his few possessions in preparation to move. He had already taken down his tent.

Friday will “come fast for people who have settled in here,” Hernandez said.

He’s been through this before, he said.

Hernandez was living at the Costa Mesa Motor Inn for five years before he lost his construction job and could no longer afford the rent. He remembers the date he began living on the streets: Jan. 22, 2015.

At first, he slept on Newport Boulevard near The Crossing Church in Costa Mesa, but it was hard to get a restful night’s sleep with traffic zooming past and constant worries about his belongings being taken.

He and a few other homeless people began camping on the river trail off Talbert Avenue in Fountain Valley, but county officials told them they had to move. So they made their way up the river and set up camp near the New Chase condominiums, across from Centennial Regional Park near the Fountain Valley-Santa Ana border.

Hernandez said the spot became an oasis where they weren’t constantly bothered by law enforcement and could build a community where people kept an eye out for one another.

“It’s peaceful,” he said. “Out here you don’t get harassed. It’s a lot rougher in the city.”

Now, Hernandez said, he’s likely headed back to the streets of Costa Mesa to find a place to sleep, but he hopes something better will come along.

“We’ve been down this road before,” he said, referring to his neighbors on the river trail. “These people are survivors. This is their life.”

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCN