Orange County Leaders Meet to Discuss Homelessness Fix

Board Chairman Andrew Do said the funds have only been proposed “but funds can be uncertain.”

Do said the county will need to construct another emergency shelter as the 400-bed Courtyard Shelter is currently the county’s only one.

The housing plan - which Do called “monumental and revolutionary” - has a price tag per unit of roughly $300,000 for single adults and $425,000 for family units with support services attached.

The county’s plan lists a capital funding gap of $353 million.

That funding stream won’t arrive all at once and the units would be built over the course of seven years, according to former Orange County official Dan Young.

When pressed by Carter on how many units could be built within a year, Young said 1,000 units.

Young, a former mayor of Santa Ana, has been lobbying the Legislature for approval of AB 444, which would give the county authorization to form a joint powers authority to lobby the state for potential tax-revenue funding that could be approved by voters in November.

If passed, SB 3 - a bond measure put on the Nov ballot by the Legislature - would provide $4 billion for affordable housing projects.

The joint powers authority, according to the bill, would create the Orange County Housing Trust, a body that would regulate land use and fund housing projects for homeless residents and low income residents. It wouldn’t own any property or supersede any city’s housing authority.

Participation in the joint authority would be voluntary for each city however, and no city would be obligated to pay into the trust, Young said. Those that sign up could access the funding.

“The [joint powers authority] would allow [cities] to have a seat at the table to receive $930 million,” Young said, who also added that the county is pushing the Legislature to pass the bill by Aug. 30.

Do said the county’s housing plan is part of a effort to climb out of a worsening homelessness crisis and prepares for any future increases in homelessness.

Since 2013, the county has experienced a 53 percent increase in unsheltered homeless residents.

Many have sought shelter over the last five years in public and private areas such as the Santa Ana riverbed and the Orange County Civic Center.

Carter is presiding over a pair of federal civil rights lawsuits regarding homeless people who previously occupied the riverbed encampment and another camp at the public plaza in Santa Ana.

As part of an agreement in the lawsuit, county officials removed residents of the encampment on Santa Ana River Trail and temporarily housed them at nearby motels and hotels.

Advocates want the county to ensure that the homeless are either placed into shelters, connected to permanent housing or provided access to health services.

Carter has had to step in – often using unorthodox methods - to broker agreements between the county and cities in order to arrange appropriate housing for the homeless.

He has said he wants to avoid having to issue a temporary restraining order - which would deny cities the right to enforce anti-camping ordinances - so that a collective plan could be constructed.

He has also said repeatedly that homeless people who break the law should be sent to jail, though he said the process operates under the” idea that homeless people should not be criminalized simply for being homeless.”

Carter has allowed work in addressing the housing needs be done with expediency, often bypassing Americans with Disabilities Act compliance regulations in order to meet the needs.

He’d previously criticized county officials over the “decades of neglect” on creating a comprehensive homeless policy and failure to spend an estimated $187 million in recently uncovered county funds which are under designation for mental health services.

Carter said last month that Wednesday’s hearing would be the last meeting of its kind before he would have to use his authority to prevent cities from enforcing anti-camping ordinances and anti-loitering laws.

Cities must come to an agreement soon due to a looming July 16 deadline. That’s when the county’s two armory shelters will close for the season. Once they close, homeless residents could migrate into neighboring cities and back into encampments.

Not all advocates for the homeless left Wednesday’s hearing feeling confident that further negotiations will lead to “holistic and positive outcomes” for the county’s homeless residents.

Margaret Sharpe, an advocate for the homeless, said the 2,700 units proposed by the county won’t house all the homeless people that need housing.

Sharpe, based in Costa Mesa, said county officials should support policies that will prevent residents from becoming homeless such as rent control and living wage ordinances.

“Cities in these cases are focused on shelter beds, but that doesn’t mean you’re done with your responsibility to these [homeless] residents,” Sharpe said. “We have to ask ‘What are the greater needs of the community?’”

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