With the OC Board of Supervisors incapable of leading a regional affordable housing solution, business and civic leaders are asking whether it’s time for a regional housing agency — to manage expected state, county and private resources and actually build needed affordable and permanent-supportive housing across Orange County?
Category: Norberto Santana Jr.
Columns by Norberto Santana Jr., Voice of OC’s publisher, on Orange County government, public records and the habits of the people who run the county. He has written this column since the newsroom started.
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Santana: OC Faces Stark Accountability Crisis
Local & Fed OC law enforcement agencies apparently target each over political investigations, prompting many to question who can be expected to regulate elected officials in Orange County. Meanwhile, south county mayors ignore the Orange County Board of Supervisors’ mandate on homelessness, insisting other cities continue to cover them on shelters. And with hundreds of millions being considered for affordable housing construction, voices are already calling for a new regional housing construction agency – independent of the Board of Supervisors.
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Santana: Homelessness Showcases County Supervisors’ Weakness
As Orange County Supervisors have increasingly abandoned their regional responsibilities, they’ve largely been left with a one job they seem to hate: combating the effects of poverty.
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Santana: Part-Time County Supervisors
After publicly confronting their own inability to craft a regional solution to the local homelessness crisis last week, Orange County Supervisors should face some hard questions about their own political futures. Yet instead of the usual recall talk, Orange County should think big picture…as in Part Time County Supervisors.
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Santana: The New OC
Homelessness, housing and traffic have replaced crime and race as chief concerns amongst the new demographic majority of residents taking root in Orange County, a new Chapman poll finds. So what do we do about it?
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Santana: The Day of Reckoning
After freaking out residents across Orange County last week with a half-baked homeless sheltering plan aimed at Laguna Niguel, Irvine and Huntington Beach – which triggered mass protests – county supervisors this week turn to what they do best, ideology. Now it’s time to debate sanctuary city status and the federal lawsuit against the State of California.
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Santana: It Takes a Federal Judge
With every passing hearing, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter keeps drilling into the reality of homelessness in Orange County: Tax resources and public worker expertise are there. County supervisors are the problem.
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Santana: United to End Homelessness
A large coalition of smart, sharp chief executives from Orange County organized by the local United Way and the Association of California Cities, Orange County gathered this past week to offer much needed direction as well as a leadership council to help the County of Orange end homelessness. But can these CEOs really tackle systemic challenges such as affordable housing construction and stagnant working class wages? Recent union protests against one coalition member, Disneyland, connect homelessness with corporate subsidies, low wages, high rents and unaffordable homes. Are we ready for that discussion?
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Santana: Riverbed Evictions Revealed Failed Homelessness Policies
County supervisors this past month were able to offer more than 700 people camped out along the Santa Ana riverbed a viable option toward stability by granting them motel stays and case workers. So where were these services the past decade while the homelessness crisis exploded? Should County Supervisors remain the lead agency for response? Where do we go from here?
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Santana: Lessons in Leadership over President’s Holiday
Judge David O Carter this week demonstrated real leadership on combating homelessness by getting out into the field and challenging county officials to focus public resources on meeting immediate needs of riverbed residents. Yet will this rare focus last? Could receivership of federal and state funds coming into the County of Orange be on the horizon?
