Has OC’s homeless population increased or decreased? This week’s numbers will tell – Orange County Register

As hundreds of employees serve the homeless and volunteers fans across Orange County next week to count people who live on the street, they’ll collect loads of data on the characteristics of out-of-county residents, where they are, and what might help them get back on their feet.

But the key question is how many people are currently homeless in Orange County, and how does that compare? final countywide census in 2019.

Those who work with the homeless say it’s a difficult number to predict, especially given the mix of progress and failure the county has seen over the past three years.

Father Dennis Kriz, a homeless advocate at St. Philip Benizi of Fullerton, who allowed people to camp on the church grounds from 2017 to 2019. “I don’t think anyone really knows what the numbers will be. rearranged everything. “

The “right time” count – required every two years by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development for some grants and grants – is postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemicand the rise of omicron infections has pushed it from last month to this week.

The county and its nonprofit partner City Net are overseeing the tally, beginning Monday, February 21, with a tally of everyone in OC emergency shelters. From Tuesday to Thursday, trained staff and volunteers will visit “hot spots” where people usually sleep or set up camp and also inspect the surrounding areas.

In addition to a head count, they’ll ask people to answer more than two dozen survey questions about whether they’re employed, what relationship they have to Orange County, and other information. The data will take months to process, and any points that need to be resolved – such as where to target programs and dollars – will likely not be available before spring.

Implementation progress

Orange County 2019 figures show 6,860 people are considered homeless, of which more than 3,900 are on the street (the rest are in emergency or transitional homes).

Much has changed since then.

New emergency shelter Yes openadded nearly 1,500 beds in six cities (all in North or downtown Orange County). Four of them web sitesknown as “Navigation Center” is interested in providing counseling, case management, job placement and other services to help people find permanent housing and support themselves.

More than 400 permanent support housing units for formerly homeless people OpenedIncludes about 125 units just for veteran. And some cities have rolled out or enhanced their street outreach services, shifting from police to social worker as homeless liaison someone who helps put people under one roof, into rehab or anywhere else that suits their needs.

“We have seen a lot of progress. One of them is that COVID has created opportunities that didn’t exist before, because it issued federal and state dollars for homeless interventions that didn’t exist,” said Matt Bates, vice president of City Net, which provides services to the homeless, adds more than a dozen OC cities and also operates in Los Angeles, Riverside and Santa Barbara counties.

Admittedly some of that progress came later advocates file lawsuit on behalf of homeless peoplesome of them argued that they had nowhere to go when the officials wanted to clear them out of camp along the Santa Ana River trail near Angel Stadium.

Whatever may have prompted it, some local officials are proud of what they have created to help those who have no place to stay.

In Anaheim, “we haven’t had any major complaints from those around our shelter,” said city spokeswoman Lauren Gold, and the “community care response team” explained. Addressing Homelessness Issues has handled more than 15,000 calls in the year since its launch.

A renovated motel that has been converted into permanent housing is almost sold out as soon as it opens, and the city plans to convert another motel. Since fiscal year 2018-19, the city has spent more than $47 million on homelessness (including state and federal grants), and is sure to spend more in the coming years to create supportive and low-income housing.

“I think everyone knows that’s really the key to moving forward,” Gold said.

Many failures

But local officials and homeless service providers acknowledge that more work remains to be done.

Kristina Silwal, who lives in a gated complex in Stanton near Beach Avenue and Garden Grove, endured weeks of frustration when a tent camp sprang up along the nearby 5th Freeway. Silawal said residents noted an increase in petty thefts, car break-ins and people loitering behind a few old motels.

The location is a crossroads between the borders of several cities, and Silwal said when she complained, it felt like the issue was being raised between neighboring countries.

About a week ago, several agencies teamed up to clean up the camp, but Silwal and her neighbors “really tired of it,” she said.

Additionally, while the pandemic has helped create new sources of funding to help the homeless, it has put many families in financial jeopardy and it has forced emergency shelters to power reduction to avoid spreading the virus to vulnerable customers – so some of the new shelter beds that may have been filled are already empty.

And the underlying causes of homelessness, the lack of available or affordable housing, have yet to be improved. The vacancies are at a low not seen in two decadesand rents – after stagnation or decline because of several pandemics – are rising again.

At some emergency shelters, after 90 days (or whatever the maximum length of stay) people will return to the streets because there’s nowhere else to go, Kriz said. And while OC Care Coordination Director Doug Becht touted another 1,000 home vouchers recently given to four OC housing agencies, Bates said he’s seen customers who already have offers that can’t be found who rents them out.

“There are newcomers who are constantly falling into homelessness” because of broader economic forces, says Bates.

“We are pushing water out of the boat on one side, but there is a leak somewhere else,” he said, “you have to secure the water and you have to seal the hole.”

There’s still a lot of work to do

Whether or not next week’s numbers show up – Bates guesses it could be around 10% higher or lower than 2019; There are certainly more shelters, and possibly more people on the streets, Becht said – homeless care providers hope to build on successes in the area. the past three years.

There are plenty of emergency beds now, but there’s a lack of permanent homes for people escaping shelters, Bates said. However, “the fact that we moved that bottleneck from the street to the shelter is good – it’s more humane.”

Over the past three years, Becht said, the county and its partners have focused on “building our infrastructure here and taking a tailored approach to homelessness” including temporary housing. time and longevity and a wide range of services.

The county has submitted several state applications for motel conversion projects and is likely to receive millions of dollars more in a third round of funding to help people find a home or stay in their home. had.

Kriz, supporter Program “safe parking” for those sleeping in their cars, said he’d like to see more interest in the area beyond the pilot program Fullerton has already tried.

A safe place to park for overnight stays is relatively cheap and by helping people avoid penalties for illegal parking and potentially losing their cars, he said, it could help prevent homelessness. live on the streets more, he said.

Kriz keeps tabs on the monthly number of deaths among the homeless and he doesn’t want to see another year like 2021, when a record 382 Orange County residents died without a permanent home. He also hopes more communities will receive long-term solutions.

“I just kept saying, whatever you’re afraid of with homeless people, is it better for them to take to the streets?”