Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/orange-county-homeless-shelters/)
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.
Five South Orange County cities will head to Federal court after a lawsuit filed by attorneys alleged dumping of homeless people and blamed the region’s lack of shelters.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, after years of rapid growth in Orange County homeless deaths, issued an emergency request this week describing a “public health crisis in the County leading to the deaths of hundreds of people experiencing homelessness.”
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.
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.
Santa Ana Thursday unveiled its new 200-bed interim homeless shelter, dubbed The Link, that has beds for single men and women, limited beds for couples and space for families.
South Orange County also is set to be brought into the federal case, as the judge expressed frustration at the lack of a south county shelter site.
Homeless people in north Orange County no longer will have nightly shelters at the National Guard armories after the Santa Ana armory closed its doors Sunday morning and Fullerton shut down last week.