When Orange County’s recent point in time count of people living on the streets and in shelters came back higher than in 2022, officials said the loss of pandemic-era protections such as rental assistance and the eviction moratorium contributed to the return to numbers closer to those seen in 2019.
When those emergency resources and protections went away, folks became more vulnerable again to falling into homelessness, they said.
But having seen their benefits, some cities in Orange County have begun making permanent some of their own safety nets to supplement the loss of these resources, such as enhancing eviction protections or capping rent increases. And more money is being spent on creating longer-term housing to get people out of the cycle of going in and out of shelters.
The number of homeless people in Orange County rose by 28% in the last two years, according to the latest point in time count results released May 8 by county officials. The county reported 7,322 people approached during the January count said they were experiencing homelessness, and nearly half reported that they were experiencing homelessness for the first time in the past year.
But the increase from pre-pandemic 2019 was just about 7%.
Costa Mesa in November passed a new law that enhances protections for renters in no-fault evictions, the type that can happen when an apartment owner wants to renovate their unit. Under the law, landlords must notify the city when they serve an eviction notice. It also requires that renters forced out of their apartments for a no-fault eviction be provided relocation assistance equal to one month of fair market rent based on the size of the apartment.
Costa Mesa Mayor John Stephens said the point of the law is to keep people housed and without it there would be a higher likelihood of illegal no-fault evictions in the city. At a City Council meeting earlier this month, city staff said there’s been a 50% reduction in eviction notices since the ordinance was passed.
The city has outreach workers who offer support to households that are being evicted to get alternative housing.
Effective since November, the Santa Ana City Council adopted rent stabilization in 2021 which caps rent increases at 3% annually or 80% of inflation, whichever is less. The council also approved a “just cause” eviction ordinance that limits in which circumstances landlords can evict tenants.
“Renter protections in our community are critical because they prevent people from being pushed out of an apartment,” Councilmember Jessie Lopez said, adding that it isn’t the only solution. “Cities must build affordable housing. We have many market-rate apartments in the city that are nearly $3,000 a month.”
Councilmember Benjamin Vazquez said he thinks these guardrails most likely kept people from becoming homeless, however, they are not a sustainable way to solve the homelessness crisis.
“We’re going to need homeownership and housing for people beyond whatever we have right now,” Vazquez said. “There are a lot more families living in motels, in garages, renting out rooms. We’re already so densely populated that those numbers that we counted are much higher if you account for the housing insecurity of families not only doubling up, but tripling, quadrupling up.”
In Santa Ana, the number of those unhoused increased in the last two years, according to the latest count results, but Judson Brown, Santa Ana’s housing division manager, said those experiencing homelessness in the last five years has declined by 19%. The largest issue across the county, Brown said, is the lack of permanent supportive housing specifically for folks who are unhoused.
“There is absolutely a supply issue. We need more housing, more affordable housing overall,” Brown said. “But, you can’t just build all the new housing, new private market housing, rental housing, affordable housing in the world. You actually have to restrict and designate the units for people experiencing homelessness.”
That distinction is important, Brown said, because general affordable housing attracts thousands of low-income applicants, most of whom end up on waitlists. Permanent supportive housing also provides wraparound services designed to meet the needs of a formerly unhoused person to keep them housed.
“When people hear that an affordable housing project is being developed in your community, ask yourself, ‘Who is that affordable housing project being developed for? Is it for your neighbor who is experiencing homelessness? Or is it general affordable housing? We absolutely need both,” Brown said. “But relative to addressing the homelessness crisis in our communities, we need units designated specifically for people experiencing homelessness. That’s how we see results.”
Fifth District Supervisor Katrina Foley has described a bottleneck problem when it comes to housing in Orange County.
“We have created this elaborate system of care for shelter, for recuperative care. We have case managers, we have outreach workers, and they’re literally getting out and talking to any person who is experiencing homelessness. They’re getting them into the shelters,” Foley said. “But what happens once they get there? You can’t live permanently in a shelter. It’s there as a temporary stopgap to help you to find a plan for permanent housing, but there is no permanent housing, there’s no place to go.”
The point in time count report found that 72% of the people living in the county-run Yale Navigation Center and Bridges at Kraemer Place were eligible for housing, but only one out of 12 were actually connected to any.
“We have so many providers that are helping us work with each individual. Engaging and helping them get all the things they need to move into a place, but we literally do not have places to move them into,” Doug Becht, director of the county’s Office of Care Coordination, said. “There are resources and we’re trying to build on them. The challenge is that people are falling into homelessness faster than the resources we’re bringing on board.”
Julia Bidwell, director of OC Housing & Community Development, said the county is focused on the regional housing funding strategy adopted in 2018 in which the goal is to build 2,396 permanent supportive housing units by 2029. Between January 2022 and May 2024, 859 housing units, both supportive and affordable, were completed, four of which were Project Homekey sites. One roadblock, Bidwell said, is funding.
“We already have an identified gap in that housing funding strategy of about $900 million. We’re looking for resources,” Bidwell said. “Obviously with COVID, we saw that increase in resources, and now we see what happens with a decrease.”
Permanent supportive housing sites have opened up throughout the county over the last few years as part of the state’s Homekey program. Stanton on May 29 will open three new Homekey communities that were converted motels, all near or on Beach Boulevard. Combined, they’ll have 153 affordable apartments with 20 units dedicated to military veterans experiencing homelessness.
“It’s gonna be a success,” said Stanton Mayor David Shawver. “We are so proud that we are able to get three of them in our city.”
Stanton was able to house homeless people during the pandemic at motels with Project Roomkey, Shawver said.
Costa Mesa is home to another Project Homekey transformation in Orange County, with a Motel 6 turning into 88 units of permanent supportive housing.
Anaheim Councilmember Natalie Rubalcava highlighted the importance of getting people who are newly homeless connected to services to prevent their situation from getting worse.
“Those are the people that we need to make sure we can capture right away and help prevent long-term homelessness,” Rubalcava said. “The longer they are out of the street, the harder it is for them to transition back into housing.”
Lilly Simmering, deputy CEO at the County of Orange, said the county will be placing a lot more focus on housing and homelessness prevention, pointing to two homeless prevention programs brought forward by county supervisors Vicente Sarmiento and Doug Chaffee.
“We don’t have any land use authority. We don’t have any specific funding source that is meant for housing, so it will be a very interesting conversation. Housing is very much controlled by the private sector and the developers, so we are going to be trying to wrap our heads around what our role is,” Simmering said. “The county has spent a lot of time looking at prevention programs in terms of services and treatment. I think that we are going to be looking at ways to enhance those areas.”
Staff Writer Michael Slaten contributed to this report.
