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As homelessness continues to rise in Orange County, senior county staff and elected county supervisors have blamed the problem on a lack of housing to send people to once they arrive in a shelter.
While the county earmarked $350 million for housing, some city officials say it’s time for the county to take on a bigger role in the regional effort to curb the statewide housing crisis by contributing more funding.
“This has become abundantly clear to those of us on city councils, we have a very, very tight budget. We don’t get money from the state for housing like the county does. We’re not eligible to get those kinds of grant monies and we’re not eligible to be part of those programs,” said San Clemente Mayor Chris Duncan in a Thursday phone interview.
But OC Supervisor Katrina Foley said simply allocating money for housing won’t solve the crisis.
Instead, Foley said, officials need to have land that’s ready for development.
“We get fixated on it’s all just about money, but it’s also about the approval process,” she said.
Meanwhile, the lack of housing options means many people are often stuck at homeless shelters, waiting many months until they can find somewhere to live.
[Read: What’s It Like To Be Without a Home In Orange County?]
Doug Becht, director of the county’s Office of Care Coordination, said at a press conference last month announcing a close to 2,000-person increase in the county’s homeless population that the lack of housing in OC has created a backlog of people at homeless shelters
“We’ve done everything we can to make people fully qualified for housing. We just don’t have the housing to place them,” he said at a May 8 press conference.
[Read: Orange County Homeless Population Continues Growing]
Becht told reporters that the biggest challenge the county faces is a $950 million funding gap needed to build 2,400 permanent supportive housing units.
But in their annual budget proposal unveiled last month, there aren’t any boosts to the county’s housing efforts from the general fund.
Just over $350 million, or around 3.6% of the county’s budget for the next year, is aimed at developing more housing for residents or connecting them with housing through programs like vouchers.
Almost none of that $350 million is coming out of the county’s general fund, with the funding coming instead from state and federal programs.
County Says They Are Funding Enough Housing
Frank Kim, the county’s outgoing CEO, said it’s not the county’s responsibility to be the local leader for housing, saying that responsibility is shared with county cities that also have to do their share of development.
“The county certainly has contributed our mental health service dollars along with other general funds to support the development of housing, including land so we’ve been very engaged,” Kim said at the May 8 press conference.
“The $950 million number is a county wide number, and then identifies the large gap that exists between what is needed and what is available in terms of the resource.”
A recently approved California ballot measure dubbed Prop. 1 will redirect a portion of mental health money earmarked for local counties and force local officials to spend a remaining third of the funding on housing.
It’s a move the county’s chief mental health doctor has publicly said in the past will result in a reduction of over $150 million on mental health spending.
[Read: How Will California’s Prop. 1 Impact Orange County’s Mental Health Funding?]
Foley said there isn’t a need for investment from the general fund, citing the millions of other dollars being spent on housing and other hurdles like bureaucracy and the cost of building materials as bigger barriers to housing development.
“We could put $100 million out into the space right now, and if we don’t have entitlements, you’re not building any more housing,” Foley said.
She pointed to other programs, like the county Housing Finance Trust that just issued $22 million in grant funding for new housing projects and her new program to help developers purchase cheaper building materials by partnering with the county.
“We have a lot of funding that’s allocated, that’s already earmarked for housing,” Foley said. “We just need to pull down those funds and keep using those funds so we can use the other funds for things we need.”
Cesar Covarrubias, executive director of housing nonprofit the Kennedy Commission, said that while it’s “traditional” for the county to not invest its own money in homeless efforts, it’s time to change that.
“They traditionally do pass through and are not really identifying a new way to approach the issue,” Covarrubias said. “For me, it just highlights there is a new approach that needs to be taken.”
Are Cities On Their Own For Housing Development?
In a Thursday interview, Fullerton Mayor Nick Dunlap said while curbing the housing crisis is a regional effort, county leaders should recognize their role in that process because their budget is significantly greater than many cities in OC.
“They have greater resources and they’re better able to help through their general fund, they are better able to help through the Orange County Housing Authority with voucher programs and other items available there,” he said.
Dunlap said that Fullerton officials have approved housing projects as they come before the city working to find a balance with neighborhood groups when there is pushback.
“I think it takes being a leader here, and this is something I think that the county should be doing as opposed to kind of pushing it back to the cities. I really think they can be more of a resource,” he said.
It comes as many cities, like Orange, are struggling to maintain their municipal budgets this year after the federal COVID bailout money started drying up. Officials there are even considering increasing sales tax to patch their budget hole.
[Read: Heading Off a Fiscal Cliff: How Are OC Cities Planning For Budget Shortfalls?]
Duncan, the San Clemente mayor, also called on county officials to step up and added that cities shouldn’t be expected to tackle the crisis on their own.
“It sounds like county management is still using the old line of cities need to do it on their own. This is not a city-by-city issue,” he said. “It’s a regional issue and it needs to be addressed holistically and the county is in the best position to do that and help coordinate that.”
Covarrubias said while cities are responsible for picking up some of the problem, county leaders need to pave the way.
“The County of Orange does have the opportunity to be a leader and bring everyone together,” Covarrubias said. “A single city funding a bond is not the answer.”
Costa Mesa Mayor John Stephens said the county has been a strong partner to cities, highlighting a permanent supportive housing project called Mesa Vista the city helped complete with county support, and echoed Foley’s comments on other obstacles like material costs.
“The county was instrumental in helping us with the layers of funding,” Stephens said.
He also said he couldn’t critique the county for not investing general fund dollars toward housing because Costa Mesa wasn’t either, highlighting a new $2.5 million fund approved late last month by city council members that was made up of federal grant money for one year.
“It makes sense to use state and federal fundings that’s devoted to affordable housing as the first amount,” Stephens said. “But you then start to cut into the meat when you get through those funds and say are you willing to devote general fund money? At our level, that’s a policy decision we’re going to make next year.”
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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