Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/category/topics/housing-homelessness/)
Doug Chaffee, the former mayor of Fullerton, took office Tuesday. Supervisors also set March 12 as the date for a special election to replace the seat held until recently by Todd Spitzer.
Over the last year, OC saw more action toward getting homeless people off the streets and into shelter than any other time in recent memory.
Anaheim officials cleared out homeless encampments at Maxwell Park Friday morning and sent roughly 30 people to the newly opened 200-bed emergency homeless shelter near Angel Stadium four days before Christmas, as part of a settlement in a federal lawsuit.
The year-end meeting featured goodbyes to supervisors Todd Spitzer and Shawn Nelson, criticism of the all supervisors over the deaths of more than 200 homeless people this year, and questions from the incoming DA about wiretapping and alleged conflicts of interest related to a contractor hired by the outgoing district attorney and illegal surveillance of elected officials by a police union’s law firm.
An emergency 200-bed homeless shelter is slated to open near Angels Stadium Dec. 20 after the City Council decided its other two shelters, which are scheduled to open in early 2019, won’t be up in time to help homeless people escape the winter weather.
United Way Chief Operating Officer Carla Vargas updates progress on homelessness programs in Orange County, discussing a new pilot program, funded by a $250,000 grant from the County of Orange, that hopes to connect homeless people who are ready for permanent supportive housing with willing apartment owners as a way of quickly moving the dial to address an estimated need of 2,700 permanent supportive housing units across the county.
The Fullerton City Council clarified what emergency homeless shelters are at religious institutions after it amended its ordinance and added an application process so it can keep an inventory of beds in the city.
Anaheim could have a temporary homeless shelter next to the existing County homeless shelter by the 91 freeway, in the eastern part of the city.
If the sale goes through and the new shelter opens, it would be the largest homeless shelter in Orange County.
Shaky leases, financial uncertainty and limited manpower threaten Orange County food banks, but even so they help feed families and seniors on limited incomes and homeless people.