For Poor, Closure of South County Welfare Office Spells Hardship

Taking the bus around her neighborhood in San Clemente already is a tactical nightmare for Marguerite Abrego and her four children.

“People laugh at us,” the 27-year-old single mother said on Thursday as she described how she juggles two toddlers in strollers while trying to keep her older two in tow. “It’s like a crazy joy ride. God, I hate it.”

But soon, Abrego, who lives at the Anchor House, a temporary shelter, will have to make a five-hour, round-trip bus ride to Costa Mesa to apply for welfare and food stamps.

She has to go to the Costa Mesa office because as of today the county’s welfare office in San Juan Capistrano, the only such office in South County, closes its doors for good.

Despite the objections of some local officials and social service workers, county welfare officials decided to shut down the branch facility, a small storefront office on Paseo Adelante that served about 300 new welfare applicants a month, to save money while a full-service welfare office in Laguna Hills is being planned.

Orange County Social Services Agency officials said funding for the Laguna Hills office will not be available until at least January, when the Board of Supervisors reviews a variety of mid-fiscal year budget requests. Even then, county officials say, there is no guarantee the money will be approved.

But administrators of several agencies serving the poor said the closing of the facility is premature, adding that it will make it impossible for many eligible South County residents to collect welfare. County records show that 600 welfare recipients live in South Orange County, Social Services Agency officials said.

“It is a travesty for all the citizens who so desperately need access to these programs,” said Boetta Saunders, executive director of the South County Community Clinic, a nonprofit medical facility for low-income residents.

Saunders and others said that the closure is a sign that county officials have yet to face the reality that there are poor people in South County, better known for its abundance of expensive housing developments and sweeping coastal vistas than its destitute.

“There is a perception that there is no need here,” Saunders said, whose center helps many of those who seek aid from the county. “All they need to do is come down here and take a good look. These people are very, very real and have tremendous problems.”

Ellen Gilchrist, head of the Episcopal Service Alliance in San Clemente, said that she was “very disappointed” in the closing of the San Juan Capistrano office, which, she added, “is going to make it extremely difficult for us down here.”

Gilchrist said she is considering ways to help transport welfare applicants to Costa Mesa. But for now, she added, it is all she and her workers can do to field calls from residents inquiring about how to get to the welfare office in Costa Mesa on Fischer Avenue.

Gilchrist said that the trip into Costa Mesa will take three bus transfers and most of the day for applicants, many of whom are young, single mothers who do not own cars.

“They are . . . young and confused,” Gilchrist said.

The San Juan Capistrano office was opened more than five years ago at the urging of local social service workers and San Juan Capistrano City Councilman Kenneth E. Friess.

It was billed as a temporary program, scheduled to close two years ago. But through the efforts of Friess, local social services and Board of Supervisors Chairman Thomas F. Riley, the office remained open until now.

The office was staffed with two case workers for the Aid to Families With Dependent Children program and one Medi-Cal specialist. They signed up new clients and provided basic services.

Anyone needing legal or more specialized help still had to make the trip to Costa Mesa, said Robert A. Griffith, chief deputy director of the county Social Services Agency.

The decision to cancel the program was made after county welfare officials concluded that the three eligibility workers “could not handle the load,” Griffith said. “It was a small operation, and the people could be better served in Costa Mesa.”

Griffith conceded that “it will be a difficult trip for many of them. But I believe it will be a temporary situation.”

In August, the Board of Supervisors considered spending $178,000 for the 25-employee Laguna Hills office. That request was rejected because of budget constraints, Riley said.

Those funds would have been for hiring new workers, Riley said. The 6,000-square-foot building was leased by the county three months ago.

On Thursday, Riley vowed to lobby for money to open the Laguna Hills branch.

“I feel very sad about” the closing, he said. “But I feel very confident that there will be unanimous support” on the Board of Supervisors for opening the Laguna Hills branch office.

Councilman Friess, who last year persuaded fellow council members to approve a $17,000 emergency grant to keep the local office open, said he was disappointed to learn of the closing, but added that he believes the Laguna Hills branch office will open eventually.

“I’ve fought battles on this before,” Friess said. “I can’t in my wildest imagination think that (county welfare officials) would renege now.”

But until the Laguna Hills office opens, many poor South County residents will have to make the long trip to Costa Mesa, said Lauren Fiore, a case worker who sat at a desk in San Juan Capistrano the day before closing. And when they finally do arrive, they will face an application process that takes about four hours.

Fiore said that about half of those who sought services in San Juan Capistrano were unaware that the office was due to close.

“They . . . have been not pleased,” she said.