Long time advocate for the homeless of Orange County, and unhoused himself, Patrick Hogan was caught up in one recent homeless sweep he decided not to run from. Attempting to test the so-called bag and tag policy of local PD and Caltrans to reclaim his displaced belongings, he challenged the system to follow through with the stated policy and the law in California to secure and retain his possessions for recovery. What he discovered was, there wasn’t any, at least not in OC.
Author Archives: John Underwood
Posted inCommunity Opinion
Underwood: A Procession of Names
At a recent OC Board of Supervisors meeting speakers from the homeless advocacy group Housing Is A Human Right OC read aloud the names of every homeless person who died in 2024 on the streets or otherwise without fixed abode in Orange County. Often recounting the stories of many who died, they challenged the board to “do better.” Member of the board did respond. Their answers fell short of answering that challenge.
Posted inCommunity Opinion
Underwood: Mary’s Kitchen Postscript
Mary’s Kitchen, the last walk-up sanctuary for the homeless of Orange County, had by 2021 become “an attractive nuisance” to the City of Orange, and a thorn in the side of the county’s shelter first policies they call Continuum of Care. But to its homeless patrons it was sanctuary and a place to start again. Why did it have to go? And what will take its place?
Posted inCommunity Opinion
Underwood: The Last Christmas at Mary’s Kitchen?
The homeless of Orange brave the weather, the traffic, and the police to enter Mary’s Kitchen gates daily. But on Christmas day 2021 above all others the rewards are worth the hazards. Awaiting them was a feast of food, of friendship, and for a brief time, kindness and peace amidst a sea of troubles outside Mary’s gates.
Posted inCommunity Opinion
Underwood: The Trouble With Mary’s Kitchen
As outcry mounts against City of Orange’s sudden termination of homeless food service provider Mary’s Kitchen, and demeaning rhetoric from the dais returns fire against Mary’s staff, the true cause of action by the city may have less to do with the homeless and more to do with providing a home for trucks.
Posted inCommunity Opinion
Underwood: On Covid Time – A Mid Pandemic Assessment
One year into this life altering pandemic we mark as Covid time, seems like a good time to take stock of our public health response in Orange County to the coronavirus thus far, and ask the critical question how fit is our frontline public health agency in seeing us through what will most certainly be a second year on Covid time?
Posted inCountywide
Underwood: Some New Year Thoughts on the Homeless
Orange County based reporter and documentary producer John Underwood writes that even for a reporter familiar with the homeless communities of Orange County assumptions about the unhoused, who they are and what we think we know about them can often fall terribly short of the truth, as this reporter discovered one day while serving up meals to a group of homeless who served him up a lesson on the fine points of giving thanks.
