There are more people living on the streets of Orange County than there were two years ago, according to a new report published by county leaders dubbed the Point in Time Count.
The federally mandated biennial count, conducted at the end of January this year, highlighted a nearly 2,000-person increase in Orange County’s homeless population, which county officials claimed was still at a much lower percentage than surrounding counties and the state average.
To view the report, click here.
Doug Brecht, director of the county’s Office of Care Coordination, highlighted how the increase came amidst the collapse of programs set up during the COVID-19 pandemic to help the poor, like eviction moratoriums and other health programs.
“We believe these results show the amount of people entering homelessness over the past two years is outpacing our homeless services’ ability to get folks out of homelessness and into permanent housing,” Brecht said at a Wednesday news conference. “It’s a real backlog.”
This year’s count shows there are 7,322 homeless people in Orange County, most of whom live in central and north county, with 4,173 of them sleeping on the streets.
The last count conducted in 2022 found there were 5,718 homeless people in OC, with 3,057 of them were unsheltered.
That means the county went from around 53% of its homeless population being unsheltered to 56% over two years.
Orange County Lacks Housing
The new Point in Time count comes as many county leaders are admitting their current practice of focusing on shelters isn’t working, as there is not enough affordable housing to help from falling into homelessness.
There’s also not enough specialized housing with wraparound services like mental health services and medical treatment to get people off the streets – also known as permanent supportive housing.
[Read: Should Orange County Take a New Approach to Curbing Homelessness?]
That’s a problem the Point in Time count highlights this year, showing that the Yale Navigation Center and the Bridges at Kraemer, two of Orange County’s largest homeless shelters, had over 70% of their residents approved for housing programs.
But only one in 12, or about 8%, were connected to housing.
“Those 72% had done everything they needed to do in order to be matched to housing,” Brecht said. “We don’t have enough permanent housing to assist people trying to get out of homelessness.”
Despite raising those concerns about the lack of affordable housing, Brecht and county CEO Frank Kim would not weigh in on whether or not it was time for the county to invest more in affordable housing development, with Kim noting other cities had to pitch in as well.
“We’re not the only funding entity,” Kim said.
Supervisor Katrina Foley weighed in on the issue as well in a public statement.
“The 2024 Point in Time Count shows that the homelessness crisis continues to grow in Orange County with a majority of these neighbors stuck in the shelter system without permanent housing to move to,” Foley said in a Wednesday statement.
“We must redouble our efforts to build permanent supportive and affordable housing, especially for seniors, with renewed urgency,” she said.
The count also comes as local food bank leaders and county officials struggle to address hunger in OC with food insecurity remaining high since the pandemic, fueled in part by the end of increased COVID food assistance and other benefits, along with increasing rents and grocery prices.
[Read: On a Mission to End Hunger in Orange County]
Death on the Streets
With more people becoming homeless, more people are also dying on the streets.
Last year, the Orange County Sheriff’s department released a report that showed close to 400 homeless people died in 2021.
In 2012, 103 people died on the streets, according to the sheriff’s report.
In March, about 33 people died living on the streets of Orange County, according to Fr. Dennis Kriz, a pastor at St. Philip Benizi Catholic Church, who every month compiles the names of the people who died without a home in OC.
Brecht said the increasing deaths are concerning and that he’s part of a sheriff’s task force reviewing the homeless deaths.
“No one deserves to pass away without a home,” he said “That number combined with the increase that we see here should continue to be a call to action for our community and a community to continue to invest both funding resources and energy to ensure that we can help people.”
For years now, advocates have long said shelters are a temporary solution and there needs to be a strong stock of affordable housing and specialized housing, something cities across Orange County – home to some of the most expensive zip codes in the state – keep struggling to produce.
[Read: How Are Orange County’s Cities Doing At Building Affordable Housing?]
Meanwhile, a host of cities across the county including Stanton, Costa Mesa and Anaheim are taking advantage of a state program called Project Homekey to help address the need for affordable homes and specialized housing with wraparound services.
The state-funded program is being utilized by cities and counties to buy and convert rundown motels across California into housing for homeless folks with onsite support like mental health services.
Other cities are starting to look at setting up their own housing funds, letting them purchase and develop land into affordable housing.
Yet it’s unclear how effective many of those programs are for how much they cost.
[Read: Two More OC Cities Create Housing Trusts; Are They Effective?]
Some officials have also looked towards rental assistance programs to address an uptick in evictions.
A 2023 report by the nonprofit California Housing Partnership found that residents have to make roughly $51 an hour to afford the average monthly rent of $2,700 in Orange County.
The report also found that more than 80% of extremely low income households in OC are paying more than half of their income on housing.
According to 2023 income limits from the state Housing and Community Development department, the median household income is $127,800 and if a household of four makes less than $43,050 a year, they are considered extremely low income in Orange County.
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @NBiesiada.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
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