More than a dozen city leaders from South Orange County met yesterday to figure out where to put beds for homeless people. A library near Lake Forest is the latest plan for a homeless shelter in Orange County. The idea of the meeting was for officials to come up with smaller sites for shelters in multiple cities. Lake Forest Mayor Jim Gardner was the only one to oppose the site at the Library of the Canyons. Garder says he is worried that the remodeled library would be wasted.
"From the discussions, I'm going to say that they're going to close the library, put cots into the library rooms and turn it into the shelter."
He says a preschool is also close by.
" Across the street, there's a pre-school and the Santiago Canyon road which is maybe one of the most dangerous roads in the county...On a busy dangerous road, that seems like a funny place to put people with physical and mental disabilities close to a pre-school. That sounds a little funny."
The idea to place the homeless at the remodeled library would however still need approval from County Supervisors.