Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/brooke-weitzman/)
The judge, David O. Carter, pointed to Santa Ana and Anaheim residents and businesses who, he said, are grappling with hundreds of homeless people who formerly lived at the Santa Ana riverbed but now are in their cities due to a shelter shortage.
The move sends the issue back to south county mayors to recommend another site or sites for a homeless shelter.
The homeless people who slept in the Santa Ana Civic Center for years were cleared out by Thursday afternoon and people can’t sleep there anymore after much of the area was blocked off by chain link fences.
County workers, along with the Santa Ana Police Department, began clearing out segments of the Civic Center homeless camp Monday as healthcare workers and city contractors started health and other assessments of roughly 200 people living there.
At least 250 people protested Sunday against plans for a homeless shelter at a former military base in Irvine, raising concerns about drug use and potential risks to children in nearby athletic fields and neighborhoods. Supervisor Shawn Nelson said no drug use or sex offenders would be allowed in the shelter.
Orange County supervisors to create up to 400 new emergency shelter beds on county-owned properties and spend about $70.5 million in stockpiled money for housing and services for homeless people with serious mental illnesses.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter has called a federal court conference for Saturday morning to discuss the county’s imminent plans for moving hundreds of Santa Ana riverbed homeless people currently in motels, to county shelters or medical facilities.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved up to $2 million to use toward additional shelter beds, as part of a plan to move hundreds of Santa Ana Riverbed homeless people from motels to other types of shelter.
The month-long motel stay for the first group of homeless people relocated from the Santa Ana Riverbed ends Friday, a deadline that has hundreds of homeless people, county residents, volunteers and attorneys for the homeless wondering what comes next.
County officials and lawyers for homeless people said they planned to work over the three-day holiday weekend to help ensure any homeless people who want motel rooms before the Tuesday deadline can quickly move into them.