Another 34 people died “Without Fixed Abode,” homeless, in OC in July, 2020, tying the record set in May of this year.
The names of this month’s deceased are: Francisco QUINTANILLA who died on July 1st in Placentia, James LOBNOW who died on July 4th in Santa Ana, Nibardo NAVARRO who died on July 4th in Orange, Hector MENA who died on July 5th in Newport Beach, Ernesto MOTA who died on July 7th in Anaheim, George CHRISTIANO who died on July 7th in Cypress, Obede FERREIRA who died on July 8th in Anaheim, William RYE who died on July 8th in Orange, Sean RICHARDS who died on July 8th in Fullerton, Felipe MORENO JIMENEZ who died on July 9th in Garden Grove, Anthony MATOS who died on July 9th in Fullerton, Jose SERRATO who died on July 10th in Santa Ana, William POWELL who died on July 11th in Santa Ana, Infant male GOMEZ who died on July 11th in Anaheim, Michael COCUZZI who died on July 12th in Newport Beach, Sky KINCAID who died on July 15th in San Clemente, Ramon MADRID who died on July 17th in Dana Point, Teresa FELKER who died on July 17th in Anaheim, Guy SINCLAIR who died on July 18th in Orange Ralph FINCH who died on July 19th in Santa Ana, Rafael MORENOPICENO who died on July 20th in Orange, Minh NGUYEN who died on July 20th in Westminster, Esteban AZPEITIACALLEJAS who died on July 20th in Garden Grove, Robert PARSONS who died on July 21st in Brea, Aimee VETERE who died on July 22nd in Santa Ana, Christopher SCHILLER who died on July 22nd in Orange, Lindsey LOFSTROM who died on July 23rd in Orange, Eddie FABELA who died on July 26th in Garden Grove, Robert HARDING who died on July 28th in Garden Grove, Elizabeth PLATIPODIS who died on July 29th in Garden Grove, Colleen ZEHFUSS who died on July 30th in Anaheim, Marcel DO who died on July 31st in Westminster, Myra CURRY who died on July 31st in Westminster, and Daniel MCNELEY who died on July 31st in Anaheim.
Last July, 15 people “without fixed abode died. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 Crisis, the mortality rate among those “Without Fixed Abode” has essentially doubled. This has been consistent now since Governor Newsom’s issuing of his “Shelter in Place” order on March 19, 2020 [1][2][3] [4][5] Since the issuance of that Order, 135 “without fixed abode” have died in OC. Last year over the same period there were 68.
What to make of this? It would seem that we remain paralyzed. Even programs like Project Roomkey and now Operation Homekey remain essentially well-meaning lies. A program offering 500-600 rooms can not serve a population of 5000-6000 people sleeping on the streets. And yet the UCI – United Way – Jamboree study (Exec. Summary, pg 5) showed that the cost of keeping people on the streets is about $100K/person/year. The report estimated that the cost of permanent supportive housing was about $52/person/year. Even at the cost of $100/night the cost of a hotel room/person/year would be $36K. We CAN solve this problem, but we have to finally approach it at its proper scale.
Fr. Dennis Kriz, OSM, Pastor St. Philip Benizi Catholic Church, Fullerton.
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