Santa Ana Police officers have been called to respond to 1,441 calls at two motels and a restaurant on East First Street for crimes like illicit drug sales, possessing meth and disorderly conduct in the past three years.
It’s an area that city council members – most of whom are in their second term – say has long been a problem and hot bed for drugs as other cities in Orange County convert problematic motels into affordable homes.
Now after years of mounting complaints from residents, Santa Ana officials may soon crack down on what they say are “drug dens” at the Royal Roman Motel, the Royal Grand Inn and El Tapatio Restaurant on First Street.
On Tuesday, Santa Ana City Council members voted unanimously to give the city attorney the authority to file a nuisance abatement lawsuit against the owners and call on a Superior Court judge to shut them down for a year as well as hand over the properties to an appointed receiver.
Councilman David Penaloza said the potential lawsuit was years in the making and that if it was up to him alone it would have been filed five years ago.
“I hope that this sends a message loud and clear to every business across this city or absentee landlord, that if you allow this blight, drug dens and crime to exist inside your property and ignore it and do not pay attention to it,” he said at Tuesday’s meeting.
“We will go down this route because it is a shame that our residents have to deal with this nonsense day after day.”
Penaloza also said landlords aren’t doing their jobs if they don’t realize the host of problems on the properties.
“If there’s someone that’s shitting on my front lawn, guess what? I’m going to know because I’m going to see it,” he said, adding that First Street is the gateway to the city.
Tuesday’s action allows City Attorney Sonia Carvalho to seek a temporary restraining order from an OC Superior Court judge against the owners, shutting the businesses down for a year.
The move could also mean a court-appointed receiver takes control of the properties and sells them to responsible owners.
It also allows her to seek a $25,000 penalty against each property and business owner.
Carvalho said claims that city officials have not reached out to property owners are insincere.
“If you’re a property owner in that corridor and you tell us that you had no idea that there have been over 1,400 calls for service in a three year period – yes, I do find that very disingenuous,” Carvalho said at Tuesday’s meeting.
“I’m very concerned that you’re just an absentee landlord.”
Carvalho also said they intend to have a conversation first with the owners, but want to be ready to file the lawsuit if they don’t see immediate action to remedy the situation.
Councilwoman Jessie Lopez said East First Street has long been a problematic road and a topic of conversation between different city departments.
She also said legal actions against the property owners are necessary to restore neighboring residents’ confidence in the city and hopes the owners will work with city officials to resolve the issues.
“For many years, we’ve seen just a consistent pattern of issues at certain properties that are not getting better, unfortunately. And so this really has impacted negatively the safety of our residents and our community,” Lopez said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Addressing Problematic Motels in Other Cities
As officials in Santa Ana have been contemplating what to do with First Street, leaders in nearby cities like Stanton and Anaheim have been buying problematic motels and converting them into affordable homes with funding from the state’s Project Homekey program.
Stanton city officials have been aggressively pursuing the program since its inception during the pandemic and have committed at least $6 million to convert rundown motels into housing.
Officials there also issued a moratorium on new motels.
[Read: Stanton Issues Moratorium on New Motels Over Prostitution, Drugs and Crime]
The moratorium in Stanton came in 2023 after over 3,000 police calls for service at seven motels in the city since 2019 for crimes like prostitution, drugs, robbery and assaults with deadly weapons.
Last year, Anaheim officials voted to begin an eminent domain procedure against the Rainbow Inn motel after city staff said it had been draining city resources with its disproportionate high numbers of police calls.
Officials eventually bought the motel for a little nearly $7 million without having to use eminent domain.
[Read: Anaheim Moves to Take Over Motel That Houses ‘Nefarious Activities’]
Anaheim officials there also bought two neighboring motels to redevelop into 120 affordable apartments and 15 townhomes – including the Anaheim Lodge which saw 457 police calls and arrests in 2021, according to a city news release last year.
[Read: What’s the Best Way For CA Metro Areas Like Orange County to Deal With Rundown, Seedy Motels?]
More Crackdowns on First Street?
Meanwhile, Santa Ana Mayor Valerie Amezcua said she regularly calls the police about shady activity on First Street.
“I call and say they’re naked on First Street, they’re doing drugs on First Street, they’re sleeping on First Street. They’re this, that and chicken fat on First Street. It’s awful,” she said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Amezcua also said First Street has always been a disaster but people have had enough.
“I don’t know why it wasn’t addressed years ago. I don’t know why somebody didn’t pull the trigger or what the fear was to pull the trigger, but the pendulum has swung,” she said.
“This city is not looking at people on First Street anymore and saying, ‘Oh, pobrecitos, they need help. They need a place to live.’ No, they’re criminals, and they’re doing drugs, prostitution, human trafficking, defecating, masturbating, having sex on the street. And the list goes on.”
She added that this sort of behavior does not happen in Newport Beach and South Orange County cities
It’s not just drugs.
The three businesses on First Street have also received code violations in recent years.
In August, the Royal Roman Motel owners got violations for fire and water damage in five rooms – many of them are still red-tagged as of February for being too dangerous to inhabit, according to a staff report.
The Royal Grand owners also received violations over the years – getting a citation in February for lack of hot water.
And El Tapatio has been investigated for illegally selling alcohol after hours and the owners got a $69,000 fine for operating without workers compensation insurance and a payroll system.
Councilman Johnathan Hernandez said the lawsuit is an opportunity for businesses across Santa Ana to be good partners with the city and be “good actors.”
“For these three businesses, I hope that they improve their practices and that this is a learning lesson for them,” he said.
Councilman Phil Bacerra said the lawsuit was a great first step to cleaning up First Street.
“There needs to be a lot more work over there,” Bacerra said at Tuesday’s meeting.
“Given the neglect from much more than just these three properties, I think madam city attorney might be a little more busy”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.