In a 4-1 vote, the San Clemente City Council this month authorized sending a letter to the state requesting that a vacant facility should be used to house unsheltered persons.
Mayor Chris Duncan was the lone opponent of the action, although there was no discussion on the matter.
Directed to Ana Lasso, director of California’s Department of General Services, the letter concerned the Fairview Developmental Center in Costa Mesa. The facility has sat vacant since 2016, after serving people with developmental and intellectual disabilities through various care services for 57 years.
According to the city’s agenda report, the state is considering selling the remaining 79% of the property that will not be used for a state Office of Emergency Services facility.
The letter asks that at least a portion of the whole site be used for temporary and semi-permanent housing for unsheltered people and for providing supportive services.
It also argues that if the state accommodates the city’s request, the number of units included within each Orange County city’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation should decrease.
“Addressing homelessness benefits the County as a whole,” the letter states. “Allowing almost 100 acres of State-owned property to be used to benefit a single community in the County that can be used to satisfy their Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) allocation is very unequitable to the other communities in the County.”
San Juan Capistrano Mayor Howard Hart declined to comment on the letter, or whether he felt San Juan Capistrano should have a similar request.
Dana Point Mayor Mike Frost and Mayor Pro Tem Jamey Federico did not respond to a request for comment.