Another 27 people died without fixed abode in OC during the month of July. Their names are:
Scott NELSON who died on July 1st in Anaheim
Stanley KIM who died on July 1st in Stanton
Scott CORNACCHIA who died on July 2nd in Orange
Marcelo MORALES MAFARA who died on July 4th in Santa Ana
Pamela WILD who died on July 5th in Orange
Eric BOLTON who died on July 5th in Orange
Margaret DUNCAN who died on July 6th in Costa Mesa
Justin LANZ who died on July 6th in Huntington Beach
Danielle KLOPP who died on July 10th in Santa Ana
Randy MEDKEFF who died on July 12th in Irvine
Debra EASLEY who died on July 13th in Santa Ana
Issa QONQAR who died on July 13th in Santa Ana
Sandra FRYE who died on July 14th in Anaheim
David VARGAS who died on July 17th in Santa Ana
Randy WOLLING who died on July 18th in Newport Beach
Saeid REZAEIKIVI who died on July 21st in Aliso Viejo
David BROWN who died on July 25th in Santa Ana
Michelle ONEAL who died on July 25th in Westminster
Antonio COLMENARES who died on July 26th in Santa Ana
Hank ALES who died on July 26th in Westminster
Tanya KAEMPFER who died on July 28th in Orange
Trieu NGUYEN who died on July 28th in Huntington Beach
Marc PELOQUIN who died on July 28th in Anaheim
Jennifer RODRIGUEZ who died on July 29th in Orange
Laura HART who died on July 29th in Orange
Paul PIKE who died on July 30th in Santa Ana
The death rate continues to be about 25% lower than last year. The reason(s) for the decrease would be worthwhile to look into.
Several years ago OC Sheriff Barnes led a commission to investigate the reasons for the rising death rate among the our County’s residents experiencing homelessness. Perhaps the commission could be reconvened to identify what the County has done right to produce the lowering the death rate among the County’s homeless population this year.
The other big story regarding homelessness has been the County and constituent cities meeting, at times in closed door sessions, to discuss how to apply the recent Grants Pass ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, and California Governor Gavin Newsom’s subsequent executive order.
In OC many, including many of our elected officials, have noted that simply shuffling people around solves little.
To this end, I would like to offer my support to the County and to any of the County’s constituent cities for any request that they would make to the State for additional funding to allow the people who are currently sleeping on our streets to move into hotel rooms across the County. I do believe that this would be a win for everyone concerned, providing a dignified, and hopeful place to sleep to the people who find themselves sleeping on our streets, and a renewed sense of control of our County’s and constituent cities’ public spaces.
Let’s see what we can do rather than simply remind people already struggling that they are unwanted where they are without offering them any dignified place where they could go.
Fr. Dennis Kriz, OSM, Pastor St. Philip Benizi Catholic Church, Fullerton.
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