Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/2019-point-in-time-count/)
It’s a 43 percent increase from two years earlier. “We have a shortage of both affordable and available housing to meet the needs of our populations,” said Susan Price, the county’s coordinator of homeless services.
CalOptima counted 10,000 of its members as homeless in Orange County. The count is 3,200 higher than the roughy 6,800 homeless people counted by the County in January.
The nearly 7,000 people officially homeless n Orange County should be a wake up call to the County and all 34 cities to start building affordable and permanent supportive housing, in addition to shelters, according to experts in the field.
Roughly 1,300 people are sleeping in homeless shelters throughout Orange County, with all big shelters located in north and central Orange County in cities like Santa Ana and Anaheim, according to unofficial numbers provided to Voice of OC.
The two-day count of people living on the streets of Orange County finished Thursday night.
But volunteer teams reported difficulty finding homeless people during the first day of the two-day countywide homeless count.
They’re counting the number of homeless people in each city as part of a requirement for federal funding to help combat homelessness.