Rancho Santa Margarita and Laguna Hills will partner with Mission Viejo to provide homeless outreach case workers to the South County area.
After Mercy House, a nonprofit offering housing and support services to unhoused individuals, discontinued its outreach services in the area at the end of June, Mission Viejo sought out neighboring Rancho Santa Margarita and Laguna Hills to establish a new homeless outreach program.
Both cities recently signed on to the partnership with Mission Viejo.
The program — approved on June 25 by Laguna Hills and June 26 by Rancho Santa Margarita — employs two outreach staff members, mirroring the support previously provided by Mercy House to these cities. Mission Viejo, designated as the primary city, will have a full-time caseworker, while Laguna Hills and Rancho Santa Margarita will jointly share another caseworker.
Outreach caseworkers will be responsible for maintaining continuous contact with homeless people living on the streets of the three cities, said Andrew Fine, Mission Viejo’s parks and recreation manager.
Duties will include facilitating housing placements, connecting people with medical, mental health or documentation needs and collaborating with city staff and local law enforcement to address emergencies.
Mission Viejo has already hired two caseworkers for the program. Their one-year contracts began on July 1.
“We are excited about this partnership because, at the staff level, having Mission Viejo hire these outreach workers will have a lot more collaboration regionally since homelessness in our area is very transitory,” Laguna Hills deputy city manager David Reynolds said. “We are looking forward to that regional approach.”
Rancho Santa Margarita and Laguna Hills will each contribute $68,600 to the program. Mission Viejo is footing just over $136,000.
According to the latest “point in time count” results, 36 people in Laguna Hills and six in Rancho Santa Margarita were unsheltered in the past year. Mission Viejo had 35 people experiencing homelessness.
During Rancho Santa Margarita’s June 26 City Council meeting, Councilmember Anthony Beall asked what would happen if the outreach worker contract was not approved, given the low number of unsheltered individuals.
Fine said the program would help ensure homelessness in the area does not grow.
“This is a good partnership that can help us all stay ahead of this,” Fine said. “If we don’t have anyone, this will mushroom and grow.”
In April, all three cities were notified that Mercy House would cease outreach services in south Orange County at the end of June.
Mercy House CEO Larry Haynes said then that the program “ran its course” and continuing to fund it “doesn’t make sense.” Still, Mercy House plans to stay “super active” in South County by assisting in shelters and housing, Haynes said.
Laguna Niguel was also invited to join the partnership, but city leaders opted to operate its own in-house program, said assistant city manager Justin Martin.
The new partnership comes days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities can enforce bans on homeless people sleeping in public spaces.
But this ruling will not change how Mission Viejo addresses homelessness, City Manager Dennis Wilberg said.
“We rely heavily on our partnership with the Orange County Sherrif’s Department and their approach has always been to first do everything possible to help the individuals who are homeless within Mission Viejo,” Wilberg said. “We have embraced that attitude and will continue to do whatever we can to help these folks.”
