Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/illumination-foundation/)
The goal, officials said, is to help homeless people move off the streets, stabilize their health issues, develop positive relationships with other community members, and save public money in hospital emergency services and other costs.
Lloyd Pendleton’s speech to local officials, business leaders and advocates came as Orange County grapples with a growing homeless population and a severe shortage of shelter and affordable housing.
The Anaheim City Council last week voted unanimously to approve a $1 a year lease for the Illumination Foundation to use a vacant historic home as a homeless service center.
Donald Meade was homeless, living at Santa Ana’s Civic Center. Then he stopped using and got off the streets. But there was still unfinished business.
County officials say homeless people should use restrooms at the Courtyard shelter, more than three miles from the Santa Ana river bank encampment. But the shelter closes its doors at 8:30 p.m.
There’s been a 54-percent increase in homeless people living on the streets in the past four years, according to data released last week from the county’s Point in Time count.
More than 15,000 people are homeless in Orange County at some point during the year, according to the latest available figures.
The state may shutter a 114-acre property that currently houses developmentally disabled adults. Homeless advocates, and a state senator, say the property should be re-purposed as a center for homeless people and others who need temporary housing and mental health services.
Orange County’s food banks are including more fresh produce among the dried and canned staples on which homeless and low-income families have come to depend.
Officials in San Francisco and San Jose have aggressively cleared out homeless encampments similar to the one in the county’s Civic Center. But successes in other places show there are better solutions.