Another 33 people died without fixed abode in OC in August. Their names are:
Ruben GUTIERREZGARCIA who died on Aug 3rd in Anaheim
Cassandra DUENAS who died on Aug 5th in Santa Ana
Gary ANNIS who died on Aug 6th in Mission Viejo
Christina BUGG who died on Aug 7th in Orange
Rogelio VIRAMONTES who died on Aug 8th in Buena Park
Jordan USARY who died on Aug 9th in Irvine
Terry COOK who died on Aug 11th in Newport Beach
Jose ROJAS RODRIGUEZ who died on Aug 12th in Orange
Silvia PINA DIAZ who died on Aug 14th in Placentia
Raul BELTRAN who died on Aug 14th in Santa Ana
James ANDERSON who died on Aug 15th in Mission Viejo
Cody MCGHEE who died on Aug 16th in Silverado
Patrick SPEED who died on Aug 16th in Santa Ana
Long NGUYEN who died on Aug 17th in Westminster
Gary CASTELLO who died on Aug 18th in Fullerton
Rachel CHAVEZ who died on Aug 19th in Fullerton
Christopher LLOYD who died on Aug 19th in Anaheim
Sara DUARTE who died on Aug 20th in Santa Ana
Leonel ABARCA who died on Aug 21st in Garden Grove
Richard SALTER who died on Aug 21st in Buena Park
Michael BARNES who died on Aug 21st in Tustin
Grace WILLOUGHBY who died on Aug 22nd in San Clemente
Scott MORRIS who died on Aug 22nd in Santa Ana
Christopher FISCHER who died on Aug 22nd in Santa Ana
Leeanna BROWN who died on Aug 24th in Lake Forest
Bryan VARELA-PALACIOS who died on Aug 24th in Orange
Scott LINEBERG who died on Aug 24th in Santa Ana
Jacob POEMOCEAH who died on Aug 25th in Anaheim
Sirguy KAOPIO who died on Aug 26th in Garden Grove
Johnny MONTOYA who died on Aug 27th in Irvine
Kevin LUTZ who died on Aug 28th in Fountain Valley
Margarita ROBLES who died on Aug 28th in Santa Ana
Ryan MORTAZAVI who died on Aug 29th in Garden Grove
Additionally, two others died in OC without fixed abode in previous months, but were only added to the list in August. They are:
Eric GAINERS who died on May 31st in Orange
Infant Female RADFORD who died on July 29th in Fountain Valley
All in all, the death rate among OC’s homeless population remains down from 2022 and 2023, but remains at the pace of 2021, which at that time was a record year, bested only by the two years since. So the homeless death rate remains far too high.
In July, I suggested that it would be helpful if the County and State would begin to contemplate the cost and the procedures that would need to be taken to bring homelessness to an end.
Here, I wish to commend the City of Los Angeles for apparently beginning to do exactly that. The LA Times recently reported on a plan that L.A. officials have been working on for the last several years whose projected cost would be $20.5B over 10 years, or $2.0B/year, but would effectively bring an end to homelessness in L.A. in that time.
According to the 2024 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, the number of people experiencing homelessness in the City of Los Angeles stood at 45,252. So the cost of effectively ending homelessness in L.A. by this plan’s estimation would be about $45,301/person homelessness/year.
This actually compares quite well to the 2015 UCI study “Homelessness in Orange County, the Cost to the Community”, which then pegged the cost of Permanent Supportive Housing (and ½ of the people experiencing homelessness would not need that level of care) at about $55,000/person/year.
In July, I tried to come up with a simple figure on my own for the cost of ending homelessness. I began with the cost of simply putting every person experiencing homelessness into a hotel room at $100/night, or $36,500/year, noting that by both the experience of Salt Lake City and the UCI report about ½ of these people would be expected to need additional services costing perhaps several times that amount.
So for OC (which according to its 2024 PIT count has 7252 people experiencing homelessness):
7300 people x $36,500/yr = $267M/yr
3650 people x 3 x 36,500/yr = $400M/yr
Total for OC = $667M/yr
And for the State as a whole (which by the 2023 PIT totals has over 180,000 people experiencing homelessness).
180,000 people x $36,500/yr = $6.57B/yr
90,000 people x 3 x $36,500/yr = $9.86B/yr
Total for State = $16.4B / year
The total California budget (excluding federal funds) for 2025 is $298B / year
Therefore solve homelessness in California would involve spending an equivalent of 5.5% (16.4/298) of the State’s 2025 budget.
The plan being proposed in L.A., if expanded Statewide would cost $8.9B / year or about ½ of what I was figuring, or 2.5% of the State’s budget.
In both cases, this assumes that no federal funds would be applied to the endeavor even though the State would have a strong moral case for asking that a significant part of the bill be paid for by federal dollars.
The numbers offered here are rough estimates, but they can give us an idea of how much it would cost to solve this problem, if we wanted to.
Do we? But if we don’t want to solve this problem, do we understand then that we will be choosing to keep thousands of people in our County, and hundreds of thousands of people across the State sleeping on our streets, in our alleys, in our parks, indefinitely.
It is clear that homelessness is a significant problem in both the County and the State that will require a significant amount of money to solve. But it is solvable, if we choose to do so.
Fr. Dennis Kriz, OSM, Pastor St. Philip Benizi Catholic Church, Fullerton.
Opinions expressed in community opinion pieces belong to the authors and not Voice of OC.
Voice of OC is interested in hearing different perspectives and voices. If you want to weigh in on this issue or others please email opinions@voiceofoc.org.