Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/santa-ana-river/)
The proposed mental health center is seen by advocates and officials as a major step toward addressing a severe shortage of mental health service options in Orange County. There was no word Tuesday on when services will start at the property.
Deborah Langenbacher, Social Action Committee co-chair for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Fullerton discusses the “Trail of Tears” along the Santa Ana River.
The now-removed plan had emphasized expanding the affordable housing supply for homeless people as a “top priority.” The supervisors also consolidated their power over the commission, removing all current members and changing the selection rules so supervisors now will pick all of the commissioners who have voting power.
County officials plan to start evicting over 400 homeless people Monday from a strip of land next to the Santa Ana River amid a shortage of shelter beds, which is expected to prompt homeless people to relocate into the surrounding cities of Anaheim and Orange.
Orange County supervisors are facing criticism over their plan to require hundreds of homeless people to leave an encampment along the Santa Ana River by Jan. 22 without a place for most of them to go – a move one county supervisor said would push a large number of homeless people into cities like Anaheim.
Homelessness is growing to record levels in Orange County and elsewhere in the country, with more and more county residents struggling to afford rising housing costs and ending up on the streets.
The images were widely shared on social media, with a Sheriff’s Department video of the bikes drawing over 130,000 views.
Orange County officials announced plans Monday to shut down most of the Santa Ana River bank to overnight homeless camps, but said the largest camp, near Angel Stadium and home to over 400 people, will stay open for the time being.
“If you push people out you will end up dealing with it in the city,” Supervisor Shawn Nelson told a community meeting in Anaheim last week.
The Santa Ana City Council is considering filing a lawsuit against the county – and inviting other cities to join – alleging mismanagement of the millions of dollars in federal homelessness money the county gets each year.
