OCEANSIDE, Calif. (KGTV) – Tucked away in an industrial area of Oceanside is the Brother Benno Foundation, a nonprofit that provides homeless outreach to those in the community through meals and other services.
“Brother Benno’s wants to be good neighbors,” said Paul McNamara, the organization’s executive director of Brother Bennos. “We’re so much more than a soup kitchen. There are people who are the working poor who might just be $100 or $200 away from being out on the street, and we’re able to keep them afloat.”
Despite saying Brother Benno’s provides a necessary service, those who represent some businesses in the area said they’re losing current and potential tenants due to the homeless people lingering near the nonprofit on Production Avenue.
“They continue to lose money repairing property damage. And the issue is that they own buildings in other industrial parks, in other business parks, and they don’t have these problems because there are not services like Brother Benno’s there,” said Andrea Contreras, who told the Oceanside Planning Commission at a Monday night meeting that she represents some of the property owners and landlords in the area.
In May, City of Oceanside staff said they and the police department recommended some changes to the facility’s operating permit.
Those recommended changes were contracting a security company, providing sanitation workers, having a 24-hour contact point for the industrial park owners, and having monthly meetings with all stakeholders to address the homelessness issue in the area.
The recommended changes were approved by the Oceanside Planning Commission at Monday night’s meeting.
“Prior to this, the two entities were not speaking, and that was one of the reasons we recommended that be added to the conditional use permit,” said Oceanside Police Capt. Taurino Valdovinos. “Because a lot of times, some of these problems can be addressed if you just come together and discuss it and come to an agreement and work together to solve the problem.”
Coming together to solve the problems at hand is something McNamara is all for, but he said being able to carry the cost of providing of the security is the proverbial $64,000 question.
“It’s expensive. We’re nervous about it … OK, whether or not we can sustain the cost of that security,” McNamara said. “I was very encouraged that the commission said that perhaps that they city could chip in, and the one commissioner said that perhaps the businesses could chip in.”
