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Santa Ana’s zoning laws discriminate against homeless, lower-income people, lawsuit alleges

April 4, 2023

Alleging that Santa Ana enacted zoning ordinances that “unabashedly and unlawfully” discriminate, a nonprofit health care provider has sued the city.

The Share Our Selves Corporation, which provides medical and dental services to low-income Santa Ana residents, including the homeless, sued the city on March 20 in federal court. It alleges Santa Ana prevented it from closing escrow on a building that was meant to open as an expanded outpatient clinic, “all because City leaders feared that SOS’s outpatient clinic … would attract too many ‘undesirables’ to that area of the city.”

Known as SOS, the nonprofit alleges that the city is using its land-use regulations “to thwart and obstruct the operations of charitable organizations, like Micah’s Way and the Salvation Army” and targeted the new building project because the clinic’s clientele is predominantly lower-income Latinos and includes homeless people.

The city’s actions, argues Edmond Connor, an attorney representing the nonprofit, are part of “an organized campaign by the city to go after service providers to help the homeless and poor.”

A Santa Ana spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit and pointed instead to staff reports behind the council’s zoning amendments.

The Santa Ana City Council approved an urgency ordinance on Dec. 20 amending different sections of a zoning law that, among other things, immediately required a conditional use permit for government or nonprofit medical clinics in areas zoned for professional purposes. The change aimed to address and “reduce the potential impact to the built environment stemming from these land uses,” according to a staff report.

On Feb. 7, the council approved a second zoning ordinance amendment that addressed numerous topics, including medical offices operating in a professional district. The lawsuit refers to that ordinance language on medical clinics as a “backup measure” and called it “the mirror image” of the urgency ordinance from December.

The change was lumped in with numerous other amendments addressing other zoning regulations and definitions pertaining to family day care, massage parlors, trash bin enclosures, fencing and other sections of the local code — revisions that city officials said are consistent with its updated general plan and were made to protect public safety, among other reasons.

Connor said the city “slipped in” the changes without notice to the organization or proper notice to the general public.

In the lawsuit, nonprofit representatives stated they planned to open a clinic at 2670 North Main St., about a block south of the Main Place Mall.

The health care provider said it was assured by city planners that it would be granted administrative approval. Along with Turner Healthcare Facilities Acquisition LLC, the lawsuit states, the development partners then plunked down at least $500,000 in purchase-related fees and development costs on the remodel that would replace SOS’s El Sol Wellness Center at 1014 North Broadway in Santa Ana.

But the city “hurriedly” changed the zoning requirements through the urgency ordinance, Connor said. And because more time was needed to obtain a conditional use permit, the purchase agreement expired.

County-wide, the nonprofit runs four community health centers in Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach and Mission Viejo. At Santa Ana’s El Sol Wellness clinic, 87% of the patients served in 2022 were Latino, and of those, 80% qualified for Medi-Cal; 2-5% of the Santa Ana patients last year were homeless, according to the lawsuit.

Santa Ana residents have complained for years that their city is used as a “dumping ground” for homeless people from across the county, and it’s impacted residents’ quality of life. The city has filed various legal actions against the county, other cities and at least one nonprofit that serves the homeless.

Connor counters of the city: “It’s not so much they’re afraid of attracting homeless. They’re trying to drive people out by taking services away from them.”

The lawsuit notes that for-profit medical offices can open in a professional district without going through the hoops now imposed on nonprofit medical offices, which tend to serve poorer populations.

“It’s so disappointing in this day and age to have the city engage in such blatant discrimination,” Connor said.

Connor also represents Micah’s Way, a religious organization that assists lower-income people in Santa Ana. On Jan. 30, the all-volunteer Christian ministry filed a lawsuit against Santa Ana after the city threatened fines and other penalties for giving people who come to their center a snack and a cup of coffee. Until then, Micah’s Way had been offering a muffin and a cup of coffee for years, without any issues, Connor said. A hearing in that case is set for June.

The newer SOS lawsuit seeks to overturn the new provisions of the city’s zoning code, along with at least $500,000 in damages and the reimbursement of legal fees and court costs.

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Santa Ana’s zoning laws discriminate against homeless, lower-income people, lawsuit alleges

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