Charities Need Costa Mesa’s Help

For more than a decade, the Rea Community Center in Costa Mesa has been a good example of how nonprofit agencies and government entities can work together to help residents.

More than 14 years ago, the city found it needed space for community groups to use as offices and meeting rooms. The Newport-Mesa Unified School District was short on funds and did not have enough students to require using the building as a school.

So the city rented the building from the school district and turned it into a community center. Unfortunately, the mutually beneficial agreement is likely to end this year.

The school district now finds itself needing more space. The city finds itself confronted with the need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars if it upgrades the community center to meet federal requirements to provide access to the disabled. So the city has decided not to renew its lease, which expires in July.

Caught in the middle are a number of groups that have done a good job in helping people in need and which use the center as their base of operations.

City officials have promised to help the groups as much as possible, which they should. One possibility is assistance in finding new locations to serve populations such as abused women and the mentally disabled. Another is having school district officials allow the groups to stay on if the property is not converted into a school immediately.

Although the nonprofit groups using Rea have much support, some residents will be happy to see the facility become a school again. Opponents complain the center acts as a magnet for loiterers and litter. There are also charges that a number of those helped are from outside the city.

Officials of nonprofit agencies serving the poor often hear complaints that the homeless or unemployed seeking jobs make a neighborhood look bad. Although sometimes not warranted, the complaints do need to be heeded. Community support is valuable in spurring assistance to charities. Taking care to get along with the neighbors as much as possible always is a good idea. But there is evidence that many in Costa Mesa have been willing to have the nonprofit agencies in their midst, recognizing society’s obligation to help those needing assistance.