We wanted to provide an update as far as what is transpiring. This week we obviously had a few new developments occur with the following new developments:
- The city of Santa Ana opened up a 200 bed homeless shelter less than a mile from Heritage Elementary and even closer to the proposed Tustin Homeless Shelter (https://abc7.com/…/santa-ana-opens-new-temporary-h…/4697393/
- The City of Tustin is wanting to open another 60 bed homeless shelter in Greenwood across from Costco at The District (http://newsantaana.com/2018/11/01/the-county-of-orange-has-approved-25m-for-new-housing-for-the-homeless/?fbclid=IwAR2mYbN2yomK3_O4FxPli1V3reZPeoK-MgFfYoqx7P9uSfSnleSg_38MUv0 This one will be next to Victory Park and will house homeless with 'serious mental illnesses'. This will be less than a half mile from a middle school and high school.
- We have provided a map below that outlines all of the current shelters as well as the new and proposed ones. This should give a good visual representation as to what is transpiring.
These new developments are occurring in parallel with our efforts to move the ATEP homeless shelter away from Heritage Elementary School and the toddler park. A few notes on these items:
- The Santa Ana homeless shelter is done and is for all effective purposes open. There isn't much that we can do in this case. The best case scenario is that it's only there for a year and that they move it deeper into Santa Ana for a permanent location. We've let Flight at Tustin know as they are directly across the street. They have the resources and best chance of fighting it long term as it will impact their ability to lease, etc. Tustin says, 'Santa Ana has not consulted the City of Tustin about the proposed location and there have been no public hearings in Santa Ana to approve a shelter at the location.' We love the irony as Tustin has never consulted any of the residents nor held any public hearings on their own closed session deals but they are critical of Santa Ana.
- The new Greenwood homeless shelter is being rubber-stamped by the city council on Tuesday, November 20th at 7:00pm 300 Centennial Way Tustin CA 92780. Tustin Legacy wasn't consulted and neither was the Tustin Planning Commission. This is a deal that the city manager is making at the communities expense. We will be holding a protest rally outside of city council starting at 6:30pm. We cannot allow the City of Tustin and Jeff Parker to do whatever they want without community consultation and going through the proper channels. Please join us at Tustin City Council this Tuesday. Sign up to speak at: https://cityoftustin.seamlessdocs.com/f/publicinput/
- The ATEP homeless shelter next to Heritage is still top priority. Our recall campaign against Allan Bernstein has kicked off. We'll continue recalling city council members one by one as needed to ensure that we secure allies. After Allan Bernstein we'll recall Chuck Puckett and continue down the list. We've also made good progress on the legal front. We will not rest until this is resolved. We do have two new allies taking their seat at Tustin City Council on December 4th in Barry Cooper and Austin Lumbard. We simply need one more ally on the city council in order to reverse the ATEP decision and stop the city manager from making Tustin Legacy one giant homeless shelter.
If we don't regain control over Tustin City Council they may end up placing a 600-bed county homeless shelter in one of the hangers without our notification or consultation. We ask for your continued support as we fight for the safety of our children and to reign in an out of control Tustin City Council. It's up to this community to fight back. We all share the same goals here. If you would like to donate our link is: https://www.gofundme.com/protect-our-kids-at-tustin-legacy You can also volunteer or connect with our Facebook group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/272662570120338/ Thank you!