Anaheim City Council Should Vote “No” On Moreno Homeless Porta-Potties Proposal

Tonight, the Anaheim City Council will vote on a proposal by Councilman Jose F. Moreno to allow homeless activist Mohammed Aly to install porta-potties on city property next to the Santa Ana River Trail, for use by those living in the sprawling homeless encampment.

Some questions for the council to consider: would this hasten or delay the removal of massive homeless encampment? Does it make it more or less likely that homeless individuals will make the decision to become self-reliant members of society? That’s assuming the policy priority is re-claiming the miles of public parkland now occupied by a miles-long illegal squatters town and ending the victimization of residents and businesses by the criminal element living in the encampments.

No one wants people defecating and urinating on the river trail. So is the answer to install toilets in these illegal camps? Or to not allow people to live on the Santa Ana River Trail? Enablement or enforcement?

Yesterday I spoke with the managers of the Park Royale Mobile Home Park about Moreno’s agenda item. It was the first they had heard of it – which caused me to wonder how many neighboring businesses are being blind-sided by Moreno’s proposal – and they were adamantly opposed. The Park Royale is on Rampart Street, directly across the street from the Rampart camp and a few hundred feet from where Aly proposes installing porta-potties. Although technically in Orange, it straddles the border between the two cities.

Left side of street: Park Royale Mobile Home Park. Right side of street: Rampart homeless encampment.

According to the managers, the Park Royale is the ongoing target of criminal activity from encampment inhabitants. Thefts are constant and homeless individuals trespass into the mobile home park and steal anything that isn’t nailed down. They said at least 160 bicycles have been stolen from the park and a dozen chairs from the community pool – which they also regularly use for bathing. The homeless campers steal tools, solar lawn lights, patio furniture, and anything that can be used as building materials or a camp amenity.

The managers have permanently closed two of the three gates into their facility in an attempt to stem the incursions, but the homeless simply clamber over.

Just this past weekend, there are several car break-ins. The homeless hit the autos so quickly they don’t even bother closing the doors and the owners come out to find their cars not only ransacked but with dead batteries. The managers have placed at least  one hundred calls to 911 this year (that doesn’t include 911 calls from residents).

Recently, encampment inhabitants chuck an old porcelain toilet full of feces over the Park Royale wall. It shattered, scattering porcelain shards and human feces. In another incident, a homeless camper expressed his or her displeasure with the Park Royale management by having a bowel movement outside the park office door – in addition to a dozen other incidents of homeless campers leaving feces around the mobile home park.

And, of course, they have to deal with used needles left on the ground by homeless camp denizens.

According to the mobile home park managers, the top dog in the adjacent homeless camp is known as “The Governor” – who governs accordance with his view that the camp is a clan. Among The Governor’s beliefs is that since they are living in a park, residents are entitled to carry knives up to a certain length.  He lives in his own tent compound with a big screen TV and a generator.

The Governor’s compound.

As I left the Park Royale Mobile Home Park, I saw a young woman pull up to this section of the encampment and call out to whomever was inside the tents. A few minutes later, she drove up the street to the entry point to the river trail – where Aly wants to install his porta-potties.  Two guys with bald heads in their mid-twenties emerged carrying coolers. The young women hopped in the back seat, the two men jumped in the front and they drove off.

Immediately afterward, I heard a man yell, “Hey mother-f—a!” I looked over to see a thickly-muscled man jump off his bike next to the now unused children’s playground and stride over to confront some offending party on the trail. “Don’t you ever talk to me like that, n—a, or I’ll break your mother-f—–g n—a jaw! I’ll break your mother-f—–g n—a neck!” He fumed and swore a while longer before hopping back on his bike and peddling away.

Apparently, the County of Orange views this law ia more of a guideline.

Look at this matter from the perspective of residents of the Park Royale Mobile Home Park and the Renaissance Apartments – or owners of the office complexes abutting this encampment, and their tenants and the people who work in those offices. Providing amenities that make life more comfortable for encampment inhabitants deepens the permanence of this illegal squatters town. If the Anaheim City Council approves this proposal, it is one less reason for homeless campers to leave. It postpones the removal of these encampments. How does that benefit the law-abiding, working people whose lives are disrupted by these illegal encampments? They have to live in fear, and the response of Councilman Moreno and radical homeless advocates to provide amenities for the people responsible for creating this climate of fear and crime?