Twenty-eight people died “Without Fixed Abode” in OC in April, 2024. Their names are:
Roberto VALDIVIA who died on April 1st in Anaheim
Daniel MARTIN who died on April 2nd in Fountain Valley
James DURAND who died on April 2nd in Anaheim
Carlos VELAZQUEZ who died on April 3rd in Santa Ana
Richard RAINEY who died on April 4th in Santa Ana
Casey NORTH who died on April 4th in Anaheim
Jose ROMO JR. who died on April 5th in Santa Ana
Hung NGUYEN who died on April 7th in Santa Ana
Michael GRIFFITH who died on April 7th in Orange
Michele LEAL who died on April 10th in Orange
Misael MEMBRENO who died on April 11th in Santa Ana
Liliana CORTEZ who died on April 12th in Anaheim
Douglas AGUIRRE who died on April 13th in San Juan Capistrano
Abraham APODACA who died on April 13th in Anaheim
Kianoush MOGHTADER ZADEH HOSSEINI who died on April 15th in Anaheim
Kenny SILER who died on April 17th in Garden Grove
Isidro PEREZ MUNOZ who died on April 17th in Costa Mesa
Javier MANRIQUEZ who died on April 17th in Santa Ana
Ursula PLATT who died on April 19th in Santa Ana
Raymond PHILLIPS who died on April 19th in Santa Ana
Rathana HONG who died on April 21st in Anaheim
Mitchell SMITH who died on April 21st in Anaheim
Emily CHIESA who died on April 22nd in Irvine
Robert SCHUBERT who died on April 24th in Santa Ana
Alton PURNELL who died on April 25th in Santa Ana
Ruben PEREZ JR. who died on April 25th in Fullerton
Richard HARRINGTON JR. who died on April 27th in Huntington Beach
Robert RUIZ who died on April 29th in Anaheim
Additionally 1 other person had died “without fixed abode” in March but whose name was only released in April. His name is:
Matthew ADAMS who died on March 31st in Santa Ana
The death count for the year stands at 149, which is a significant decrease over what it was it was last year (2023) when it was 185, and two years ago (2022) when it stood at 165. However, in the years prior, the death rate was significantly lower still: 132 for 2021, 100 for 2020, 71 for 2019.
This month, the County’s 2024 federally mandated bi-annual homeless census (PIT Count) was released. By the new numbers there were 7322 people who were homeless in Orange County, 4173 unsheltered in January 2024. This is significantly up from the 5718 persons who were homeless, 3057 unsheltered counted in last PIT Count taken in January, 2022. However, the 2022 figure always seemed low to many, most, perhaps just about all of the county’s homeless advocate community. So perhaps the new number may be simply more indicative of the truth, which is always helpful to everyone concerned working to solve this problem.
With the new PIT number, the annualized mortality rate among OC’s homeless population has also decreased from 9.7% last year (185 x (12/4) / 5718) down to 6.1% this year (149 x (12/4) / 7322).
The new number is more in-line with the pre-2022 count annualized mortality rates (using the 2019 PIT figure of 6860 people who were homeless in the County) of 3.1% in 2019, 4.4% in 2020, 5.8% in 2021 by this time of year.
This decrease is in mortality among the homeless of the county over recent years is also welcome news.
Still the challenge is to put dignified roofs over the heads of the growing number of people sleeping in our country’s shelters and on our county’s streets. The ever present reminder is that if we do not satisfactorily respond to the problem then those sleeping on our streets and in our shelters will continue to do so decreasing of the quality of life – both material and moral – of us all.
However, the fundamental “who are we?” challenge of homelessness played out this month in OC in another remarkable way:
A few weeks ago, as I was getting up to begin my day, I received a phone call from a local Palestinian lawyer, who along with her congregation, the Islamic Center of Fullerton, had previously helped us in providing assistance to one or another of the homeless families that had come to us for help at St. Philip Benizi.
Indeed, we really do have a remarkable collection groups and congregations that have come to the assistance of families in need – from the three Catholic parishes of Fullerton, to a good number of its Protestant congregations, to the Jewish congregation at Temple Beth Tikvah, the Islamic Center of Fullerton, two Unitarian Congregations, one in Fullerton and the other Anaheim, to even a local Communist (secular, atheist but still ethically concerned) group. It’s all wonderful and remarkable.
Well, the Palestinian lawyer had a request: to provide some counsel to the organizers of the then existent encampment at UCI protesting the war in Gaza. Apparently, a local person who was homeless had come to the encampment the previous night wanting to join them and they didn’t know what to do.
And yes, the situation sounded quite familiar: A group among the protesters saw this person who was homeless to be a distraction, in the way, and wished that he’d go away.
So between people that the lawyer called, and those that I did afterwards, we assembled a group together to talk to the young protesters.
Among the initial things that I noted to the protesters was that any time someone unexpected like this comes into a protest, especially if the unexpected person becomes quite militant, that the person could well be plant. However, the organizers of the protest assured me that the person in question was not a spy, but simply homeless.
So we did go through the various options. And it did take about a day for everyone to come to the conclusion that unless the person clearly didn’t behave or otherwise clearly broke the rules guiding the others in the protest encampment in some morally significant way, that they really couldn’t send him on his way.
I’m honestly very happy that they came to this conclusion, do believe that in the long term this bodes well for a just and merciful end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A just and merciful resolution to such a conflict requires eventually recognizing the humanity of the other, no matter how inconvenient or even angry that other may be.
But this allows me to note here that this group of young, largely Palestinian protesters did what our society was unable to do both during Covid and in the civil disturbances following the death of George Floyd – they did ultimately take this person in.
In contrast, Gov. Newsom’s order at the onset of the Covid crisis was pointedly a “Shelter in Place” order rather than a “Shelter at Home” order, because to give a “Shelter at Home” order would have had to admit that there were 160,000 people across the state who had no home to shelter in (and could have forced the State to provide them with said homes so that they could comply).
Similarly, ALL of the “Mandatory” Curfew Orders issued across Southern California during the civil disturbances following the death of George Floyd specifically exempted people who were homeless from such orders. This was because the curfew orders would have required the authorities to provide homes to the people who had none so that they could comply with the ordered curfews.
That the protesters there at UCI were able to give us a better way forward when dealing with people who are homeless than the general society – treating people who find themselves homeless with dignity, incorporating them rather than ignoring them or trying to push them away — ought to offer us fodder for both reflection and change.
Fr. Dennis Kriz, OSM, Pastor St. Philip Benizi Catholic Church, Fullerton.
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