WESTCHESTER, Calif. — Westchester Park has a special place in 67-year-old Chip Mallek’s heart.

“I played baseball over here, in the younger days when I could move around,” he said.

It was during those baseball games that his future wife noticed him, and a few years later, he was coaching t-ball for his kids on the same field.

“I would have to tell them in which direction to run,” he said with a smile as he remembers those days.

The field has been recently remodeled and is scheduled to open at the beginning of October, but Mallek is worried few people will get to use it because of what he said are safety issues because of homeless people living in the park.

“My kids could ride their bikes down here and enjoy and have a wonderful time. Now, I wouldn’t send them down there without true adult and multiple adult supervision,” he said.

Mallek is not the only one feeling unsafe and protesting about it. Linda Murata, 73, used to visit the park’s senior center for exercise classes four days a week but not anymore.

“I don’t want to walk by,” she said. “I feel cheated because I live two blocks away.” 

During the recent heat wave, she sat at home with no air conditioning, too scared to go to the senior center for cooling.

“I feel abandoned, neglected,” said Murata.

Some residents allege more serious complaints, including a homeless person exposing himself to children, harassing girls at the tennis courts and drug use on park grounds.

Someone else that feels unsafe there is Oscar Barr, a homeless Angeleno who has been sleeping in the designated overnight safe parking area.

“It’s not safe,” he said and told Spectrum News he would move for the kids’ safety, but his storage unit is nearby, and this is the spot the city has designated for overnight safe parking, at least until the opening of the baseball fields.

Mallek, who has volunteered with the homeless community for the last eight years, said he sympathizes for them and said they have proposed many other safe parking sites to city leaders.

On Friday, Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Commissioners announced it would not move forward with a 24/7 Safe Parking Program at Westchester Park.

It will let the current overnight Safe Parking program sunset on Oct. 2 before the opening of the baseball fields.

The announcement comes after significant pushback from residents and community members over using parking lots at the park for homeless housing.