Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/permanent-supportive-housing/)
OC officials say they’re looking into buying local motels and converting them into permanent housing for homeless people with support services, as the state offers over half a billion dollars for such projects.
The deaths have drawn unanswered questions from activists about why the county’s main strategy to end homelessness has gone mostly unfunded.
Some officials praised the proposal, while others first want a “comprehensive plan” for the full property that could include a university extension site, student housing, a mental health campus, and market-rate housing.
The nonprofit Pathways of Hope withdrew its Fullerton application to create housing aimed at homeless people because it said it wants to see how a federal lawsuit and funding from state bills play out.
The Fullerton City Council decides Tuesday whether to give the nonprofit Pathways of Hope a greenlight to study 2.25 acres of city-owned land to potentially build 80 housing units with support services like medical and mental health care.
Orange County supervisors appear to have at least $230 million in unspent money they can use, in collaboration with other officials and community groups, to help address homelessness, a Voice of OC examination of county government finances has found.
More than 40 local leaders in business, health care, local government and professional sports teams have said they’re on board with the effort, according to organizers at the United Way.
If built, the 2,700 new units would be enough to house more than half of the 4,792 homeless people counted in Orange County during the latest official count in January 2017.