City officials in Laguna Hills and Rancho Santa Margarita voted this month to keep bolstering plans pioneered by the City of Mission Viejo to tackle homelessness in the region.
The program aims to offer housing placement, mental health resources, rehabilitation services and one-on-one assistance to residents working to reintegrate into society after homelessness.
Mission Viejo serves as the “primary agency,” being assigned one caseworker and paying 50% of costs incurred – just under $500,000.
Both Rancho Santa Margarita and Laguna Hills share one caseworker and pay 25% toward the program, totaling $228,942 for each city.
Caseworkers assigned to each city will complete housing assessments for people, connect unhoused individuals to physical and mental health services and rehabilitation, as well as collaborating with local agencies and law enforcement.
Mission Viejo Community Services Manager Drew Fine recently told Laguna Hills city council members that between July and December, Laguna Hills saw three ongoing cases, 10 new cases and four exits, leaving the caseload at nine individuals.
Fine also added that the program could see a surge in the next two years as the 2028 Summer Olympics take over Los Angeles and parts of Orange County.
“They’re gonna have a lot of homeless people that they’ve got to move,” Fine said. “It’s good for all of us to have something in place leading into that.”
Laguna Hills Councilwoman Erica Pezold voiced her support for clarity in the program, specifically regarding resource hotlines steering people to specified needs.
“There’s so many stressors that a person may be encountering, where it’s last minute, and then to have to sift through numbers, when you’re in a car, and you’re dealing with kids or whatever, and then you have to go through Laura’s house, and then you have to wait to be called back,” Pezold said.
“If we can eliminate some of that burden on our residents, that would be a big deal, even if it’s worth paying more money for the service.”
The Laguna Hills council voted unanimously this month to extend the collaboration with Mission Viejo for an additional three years, starting July 2026.
Rancho Santa Margarita also voted to approve the agreement this month.
The program was introduced by Mission Viejo in 2024 to provide coverage for a southern portion of Orange County after an outreach organization removed itself from the area.
Many shelters in Orange County, several run by Mercy House, haven’t been able to successfully mitigate homelessness, struggling to move people into permanent housing despite large portions of county funding being used up.
[Read: Is Orange County’s Homeless Shelter System Broken?]
In 2020, the County hired Mercy House, a nonprofit homelessness outreach organization which operates in Southern California, to provide services for unhoused populations in the area, according to a Jan. 14 staff report for Rancho Santa Margarita.
In 2024, Mercy House announced that it would no longer be serving south Orange County, an area which includes Irvine, Laguna Beach and Laguna Niguel, among other cities.
According to the Laguna Hills staff report, Mercy House withdrew from the area after they were “no longer able to cover administrative and management costs needed to operate their outreach programs.”
Despite the direct outreach ending, Mercy House continues to provide shelter for homeless and low-income individuals across Southern California. More details about the services they provide can be found here.