The Seville to Bring More Luxury Living for San Clemente Seniors

BY C. JAYDEN SMITH

As the number of people aged 55 and above continues to swell in Orange County, so, too, will the number of residential facilities for seniors grow in San Clemente come late 2024.

Last Thursday, June 22, Dallas-based developer Harbert South Bay Partners, the San Clemente Chamber of Commerce, and other related entities met for a ground- lem of human sex trafficking to a lack of public awareness and education.

Law enforcement agencies and nonprofits such as the San Clemente-based i-5 Freedom Network have previously explained that the illicit massage market in the U.S. is often linked to organized crime, which brings in women from other countries to perform erotic massages on clientele.

Brenda Wells, the executive director of i-5 Freedom, which works to raise awareness about and stop human trafficking, called the report a roughly accurate assessment of the current situation. She noted, however, that it largely touched on previously mentioned topics that have yet to be significantly addressed.

Gathering The Stakeholders

Originally established in 2004, OCHTTF comprises county-affiliated organizations, law enforcement agencies, and local nonprofit organizations, and is led by the Anaheim Police Department and nonprofit Waymakers.

The task force has an objective of improving victim services, and efforts in law enforcement, probation, prosecution and social services, according to the report.

One city that isn’t directly involved is San Clemente, according to Mayor Chris Duncan.

He explained the city doesn’t have the staffing to have a larger connection. However, its partnerships with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and i-5 Freedom, which are associated with the task force, help it to receive the necessary information and understanding of current issues.

Standing in the way of achieving the task force’s mission is a lack of consistent funding because of a reliance on competitive federal grant funding, which has impacted its membership, and a lack of organizational structure, the report found.

Sharing Information

The OC Grand Jury also referenced breaking ceremony at the site of The Seville, at 2421 Calle Frontera.

The luxury complex will include 87 units—63 of which are for assisted living and 24 for memory care—three courtyards, a pool, concierge service and other amenities.

Also present at the June 22 event was Momentum Senior Living CEO Josh Johnson, whose company will be responsible for operating the facility.

Johnson founded Momentum, along with a business partner, in 2018 after working decades in the industry and experiencing a chance trip to help similar companies in China.

“When we came back, we knew we wanted to work together, and we really a previous report on the same subject released during the 2011-2012 iteration of the group, in which a shared human trafficking database among governmental agencies and nonprofits was recommended, yet not carried out.

“The absence of a centralized human trafficking database and data sharing apparatus creates a challenge to effective collaboration,” the latest report stated. “Organizations gather statistics they require for their own immediate funding needs without a view toward understanding and broadly measuring their own success.”

According to Wells, a database would be “extremely helpful,” as it would reduce the work agencies have to do if they had the ability to check whether a person involved in trafficking had been detained in other cities.

Taking Further Action

Regarding education and prevention, the report called for local law enforcement agencies holding out from undergoing human-trafficking training—which was mandated under Proposition 35 back in 2012—to participate.

It also encouraged more public education campaigns such as the current “Be The One” initiative, which raises awareness of human sex trafficking and the risks of children being trafficked, and widespread adoption of training programs for school-aged children that aim to prevent early victimization.

At the local level, Duncan spoke to the implementation of the second phase of a series of priorities the city’s Public Safety Committee drafted and recommended in spring 2022.

Priority 1 included action items such as having a city staff member serve as the main point of contact for dealing with potentially illicit massage parlors and initiating the process of conducting two random inspections of targeted businesses each year.

Priority 2, which includes incentivizing wanted to create a company that embraced growth, and really one that could promote employees from within and develop people,” he said.

The two founders both teach at the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, or the multifaceted study of human development and aging, at the University of Southern California, according to Johnson. He added that they wanted to create a pathway for their students to enter the industry with their business.

The company currently operates one facility, The Variel in Woodland Hills, and will soon add three more to its portfolio, along with The Seville, of which all four Harbert South Bay Partners will construct.

Johnson said Momentum has taken hotels and motels to educate their employees about sex trafficking and rewarding compliance with local ordinances, is scheduled to roll out soon, according to Duncan.

Digging Below The Surface

The OC Grand Jury also reported other findings such as that the county’s affluence and tourist attractions contribute to the amount of sex trafficking that occurs; the punishment of clients or “buyers” is slight; victims and survivors need more support from agencies and law enforcement; and limited resources restrict law enforcement’s ability to act more toward fighting sex trafficking.

Wells referenced the recently enacted Senate Bill 357, which she said has a well-meaning premise of repealing provisions related to loitering with the intent to commit prostitution.

She added, however, that it would have negative consequences—one being that it could interfere with agencies, such as OCSD’s Vice Department, walking the street and interacting with people who are likely being trafficked.

“With this new bill that passed, that’s now considered harassment. It’s because (the sex workers) are not committing a crime,” Wells said.

The OC Grand Jury recommended the City of Anaheim and County of Orange secure funding for all local law enforcement agencies to participate in OCHTTF, and develop a human sex trafficking database by June 30, 2024.

Additionally, it suggested Orange County fully fund education and prevention programs; the District Attorney’s office publicize successful prosecution in related cases; and the County Social Service Agency develop a robust victim assistance database and implement long-term victim support programs with financial support for adults by the mid-2024 deadline.

This story has been edited to fit for print. A full version can be found at sanclementetimes.com.

up the strategy of paying staff more than what their competitors pay, with the goal of reducing turnover and keeping prices for residents “as affordable as possible.”

Emphasizing empathy is the best way to approach caring for residents, he added.

“When I got into the industry, we did a good job of getting people to live longer, but maybe not healthier,” said Johnson. “Part of our passion and part of our core value is to embrace holistic health and people live as independently as possible, so they can be as vibrant as possible.”

Momentum will open a “Discovery Center” at the Outlets at San Clemente in the early fall, where they’ll begin the process of interviewing and hiring employees, as well as taking deposits for future residents.