The Community Resource Center, a nonprofit that has provided assistance to the needy for decades in downtown Encinitas, must do more to reduce its clients’ impact on neighboring properties if it wants to continue receiving grant funding, City Council members said last week.
The comments came as the council did an initial review of a proposed five-year spending plan for its federally funded Community Development Block Grant program and began debating spending requests for the coming fiscal year. The council will host a public hearing on the grant distribution plans at its April 16 meeting.
Before any money is issued in the next funding cycle, council members said the city should add a new requirement for one of the grant applicants — the Community Resource Center, often referred to as CRC. The organization has requested $30,000 for homeless services in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.
Councilmember Jim O’Hara said he wants the organization’s leadership first to sign a “performance” memorandum of understanding, spelling out how CRC will make certain that its homeless clients don’t cause problems for neighboring properties. Both he and Councilmember Marco San Antonio, who owns a print shop near CRC’s Second Street building, said neighboring property owners have complained to them about homeless people committing crimes, abusing alcohol and leaving trash behind, and they believe CRC isn’t doing enough to combat these problems.
“The term I think we’re looking for is accountability,” Councilmember Luke Shaffer said.
Mayor Bruce Ehlers said he has regularly driven by the organization’s building early in the morning when its clients are lining up to receive food assistance. The people are “generally well-behaved,” but he did see a man urinating in the area recently, he said, adding that he believes the facility has a “materially detrimental effect” on neighboring properties.
Councilmember Joy Lyndes said she supported the idea of having a new agreement with CRC, but said she wanted to caution her fellow council members “not to blame the provider for the problem.” They need to ask themselves if there would still be homeless people in downtown, even if CRC wasn’t there.
“Honestly, I think they would be,” she said.
John Van Cleef, CEO of the organization, said CRC has operated in downtown for decades without significant issues, and it provides a wide range of services to help the community’s neediest people obtain healthy food, stable homes and safe relationships.
“Community Resource Center is not in violation of municipal code, has not been notified of any violation of municipal code; and we will always operate within municipal code,” he stressed.
Founded in 1979 by community and business leaders, CRC currently serves more than 7,200 people in coastal North County through various programs, including a domestic violence emergency shelter, counseling services, housing assistance, a food distribution center and holiday basket programs, its website notes. In addition to its downtown Encinitas location, which the organization has occupied since the mid-1980s, it has offices in Carlsbad and San Marcos.
CRC’s funding comes from a range of sources, including grants, donations and purchases made at its Encinitas and San Marcos thrift shops. The organization is in the midst of a long-running capital campaign to raise $14.1 million, and it now has reached $10.7 million of that total, its website states. Plans call for completely overhauling the Second Street site, which consists of a series of 1940s-era structures that once housed retail shops and a dentist’s office.
The project will give CRC an indoor waiting area for food clients so they don’t have to line up on the street, Van Cleef said in a 2022 interview. Plans call for a 2,700-square-foot food and nutrition center, as well as client restrooms, counseling therapy rooms, group meeting space and what Van Cleef said was a much-desired staff break room that would contain both a sink and a refrigerator.
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