ANAHEIM – A number of homeless people moved from tent encampments at the Santa Ana River Trail to a motel designated by the county as a place to house and provide services to those in need of mental health treatment said they’ve been told their stays will end this week.

About 30 men and women who were placed at the Baymont Inn & Suites in Anaheim on Beach Boulevard when the county cleared the riverbed of more than 700 homeless people in late February will have to leave on Wednesday, May 23, county officials say.

Homeless tenants of the motel and advocates who have been helping them with food, transportation and other assistance fear that many may end up back on the streets. Some of the people being displaced from the motel said they have been referred to shelters. Others say they’ve been given no information other than they must leave and have no idea where they might end up.

The group plans to show up at the Orange County Board of Supervisors’ regular meeting on Tuesday to speak about the termination of their motel stays. There is also talk of a street protest to be held outside the Baymont on Wednesday.

“We feel lied to, cheated and deceived,” a tearful Angela Demyers shouted into a microphone during a picnic and solidarity gathering in Twila Reid Park late last week hosted by advocates for the Baymont tenants and others who once lived at the riverbed.

“We’ve got rights!” she added.

Ronald “Scooter” Heatley sits in the picnic area at Twila Reid Park. He was among the more than 50 homeless people who gathered at the park to talk about the living conditions for homeless people. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)

Ricardo Montiel talks about living conditions for homeless people during a picnic at Twila Reid Park in Anaheim. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)

Sound The gallery will resume in seconds

Angela Demyers cries while talking about the living conditions for homeless people in hotels and shelters. More than 50 homeless people gathered at Twila Reid Park in Anaheim to protest the upcoming eviction of residents of the Baymont Inn. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)

James Whalen waits for a hamburger being cooked by Patrick Hogan. They were among the more than 50 homeless people who gathered at Twila Reid Park to talk about the living conditions for homeless people. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)

Homeless person Buffie Crist looks through a selection of clothing that was brought to a picnic at Twila Reid Park in Anaheim. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)



Trent Millsap was one of more than 50 homeless people who gathered for a picnic at Twila Reid Park. Millsap hopes to start a career as a Mixed Martial Arts fighter. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)

Homeless person Denise Lindstrom sits in her wheelchair during a picnic for more than 50 homeless people who gathered at Twila Reid Park to talk about the living conditions for homeless people. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)

A few have told advocates that they will refuse to leave the motel and anticipate a confrontation if there is an attempt to remove them from their rooms.

Baymont was among dozens of motels around the county where the riverbed homeless were given temporary stays paid for by the county under an agreement reached with lawyers in two civil rights lawsuits related to the clearing of the tent encampments. The vast majority of the motel stays were for only 30 days.

But Orange County officials signed a $1.6 million contract on Feb. 20 with the owners of the Baymont, leasing 99 rooms through August, to house homeless people from the riverbed deemed to be in need of mental health treatment. The county has a separate contract with Telecare Corp., a mental health services provider, to work with the Baymont tenants under the county’s Adult Full Service Partnership (FSP) program paid for by Mental Health Service Act funds.

The Baymont tenants complain that there is no program and that they have gotten few, if any, services, from Telecare, and that conditions at the motel have led to illnesses. They said they were surprised to now be told they don’t qualify to continue staying at the motel, whose rooms were stripped of such amenities as TVs and microwave ovens before the homeless people moved in.

Lawyers question the new mental health assessments of the Baymont tenants.

“It’s unclear why, although they were previously determined to qualify, they are now being terminated from the program,” said Sarah Gregory, one of the attorneys representing disabled homeless people and an advocacy group involved in a lawsuit filed in early February by Legal Aid Society of Orange County over the riverbed evacuation.

The homeless people placed at the motels initially were evaluated by county Health Care Agency staff to determine if they met the qualifying criteria for FSP funds that an individual must be diagnosed with a severe mental illness and would benefit from intensive services.

“As HCA and contract provider staff have continued to perform clinical assessments, additional individuals have been identified who do not require this level of intensive treatment as they do not have evidence of a serious mental illness,” said county spokesperson Jennifer Nentwig.

She added that those people exited from the program who are willing to accept assistance will be connected to other resources, including shelter beds in the existing system of care, mental health treatment at a “more appropriate level of care,” substance abuse treatment and/or recuperative care.

“Where people go will depend on each individual and their specific needs,” Nentwig said.

Ronald “Scooter” Heatley, a Baymont tenant who said he has been told he can’t stay but not where he will be going, said 25 years spent in prison, where he lived in a cell with only one bunkmate, makes it difficult for him to be in a place like the Courtyard shelter in Santa Ana, where there are hundreds of people in an open atmosphere. He’s been out of prison for 14 months.

“I don’t know what I am going to do,” said Heatley, 58, who tends to stay to himself. “I know my limits. I know what would happen if somebody bumps into me and doesn’t say excuse me. I got issues … I tell you, I’m scared. I swear to God. I don’t want to go back to prison.”

Gregory of Legal Aid Society said that even people who are not being terminated from the full-service partnership program at Baymont are lacking proper care.

“They’re really suffering,” she said. “They need regular mental health services.”

Some cases are extremely complicated.

Ricardo Montiel said the mental health services at the motel were not adequate to meet the needs of his girlfriend Nicole Orona, who is schizoaffective and off her medication. Orona, 50, suffered what Montiel called “an episode” two weeks ago and was out of control in their room. Montiel said law enforcement and Telecare staff wanted to put Orona on a 72-hour psychiatric hold. She ran off and the couple, who had been living at the riverbed for a year, ended up back on the streets, sleeping in bushes.

Montiel, 49, put down the food he was eating at the homeless advocates’ picnic Friday to pull out a pair of rumpled citations he and Orona had gotten that day for unlawful camping. She wants to go back to the riverbed, and he wants her to get back on her medication.

“We’re just trying to survive,” he said.

Homeless people at the Baymont also complain that visits by advocates who were bringing them food and helping with transportation have been restricted or outright prevented entry, especially since an electronic gate blocking access to visitors was installed in recent weeks.

County sheriff’s deputies also began providing round-the-clock security at the motel on April 12, an action prompted by outside agitation, said Carrie Braun, spokesperson for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

“A criminal element that was not involved with the programs developed and was taking advantage of the homeless who were placed at the motel,” Braun said Monday. “Health care workers, advocates and hotel staff also felt intimidated and it was determined that a continuous law enforcement presence was needed.”