OCEANSIDE WON’T IMPOSE REGULATIONS AT NONPROFIT
Panel rejects rules for Brother Benno’s homeless clients
Oceanside city officials, facing criticism from residents, the League of Women Voters and the American Civil Liberties Union, have stepped back from a proposal to tighten regulations for the Brother Benno’s Foundation’s services to the homeless.
One of the changes is that the city will not pursue its request for Brother Benno’s to share information about its clients with the Oceanside Police Department, an idea some critics called “Orwellian.”
“Absent a court order or a warrant, we are not going to let anybody have access to our database,” said Marco Gonzalez, an attorney for Brother Benno’s.
City officials also agreed to let the foundation decide whether homeless individuals can continue to use the service center as their mailing address longer than one year, based on their acceptance of the center’s services, instead of the proposed one year maximum for all clients.
Despite the changes, the proposal to place new conditions on the foundation failed with the Oceanside Planning Commission’s 3-3 vote Monday, with Commissioner Susan Custer absent. Instead, the commission voted 4-2 to revisit the issue at its March 8 meeting in hopes that a seventh member will be present to break the tie.
The Planning Commission appointed a Brother Benno’s Standing Committee in October 2019 to investigate complaints from business owners near the service center that its homeless clients were loitering, littering and camping in vehicles on the streets. The service center on Production Avenue is in an industrial park near the airport, where the foundation operates under a conditional use permit issued by the city.
The permit’s conditions require that the center’s operations not contribute to crime or cause other problems in the neighborhood.
Commissioner Louise Balma, who owned a business for decades near Brother Benno’s, said it was disappointing that more of the business owners did not participate in Monday’s meeting to express their
concerns. About 20 people spoke online using Zoom, nearly all of them residents opposed to additional conditions.
Balma said she supports the foundation and the work that it does, but that the service center is violating the conditions of its permit and needs to find a better location.
“Homelessness is not a crime ... but what some of the homeless do is a crime,” she said. “It’s gotten worse in the last three or four years. I can’t even fathom having a business in that park anymore.”
The standing committee, which included Balma and commissioners Tom Rosales and Kyle Krahel, recommended that the city add some modifications and new conditions to the foundation’s permit.
Commissioner Tom Morrissey supported the proposed changes with the modifications.
“We have to look at what’s best for all involved,” he said. “Everyone agrees we need to help the homeless, but don’t make the business owners bad actors ... or the police. They have a job to do.”
The original changes proposed
by the committee included limiting the use of the center as a mailing address to no longer than one year for clients, the creation of a database of all clients to be shared with the city and the Police Department, and the denial of services to people the police determine to be career criminals.
Both the North County League of Women Voters and the local ACLU wrote letters opposing the changes.
“Our focus as a League, beyond homelessness, is the potential suppression of voting rights for those who need a mailing address to register and vote,” said League of Women Voters board member Bill Loftus.
ACLU legal director David Loy, in a letter written Monday to the city, expressed “serious concerns” that the new restrictions would “violate the due process rights of Brother Benno’s or the people it serves ... based on vague and unspecified allegations of ‘criminal activity.’ ”
Also, he said, the proposal would violate the First Amendment by prohibiting “food sharing motivated by spiritual, religious or politic beliefs,” along with other
rights to privacy and religious expression.
“Legal issues aside, the conditions present significant policy and humanitarian concerns that should be thoroughly explored and debated,” Loy said. “The entire Oceanside community has a strong interest in caring for its most vulnerable members.”
Benno’s staffers said clients have been issued identification cards since the 1990s, and that the system is overdue to be updated. But
they objected to sharing that information with the police because of fears it could be used inappropriately.
Brother Benno’s has a good relationship with the police, but questions sometimes arise about cooperation, Gonzalez said.
“There has to be a developed trust with the clientele,” Gonzalez said, and the fear of a raid or some other retaliation would “chill” the ability to deliver services.
Brother Benno’s opened 30 years ago on Production Avenue, where it provides food and services to low-income families and the homeless.
During the pandemic, the center has distributed 900 food boxes monthly in a drive-by service for families in need. It also provides some people with rent and utility assistance to prevent them from becoming homeless.