Irvine officials have approved the initial step in building the first homeless shelter in town — a location.
The council voted 4-1 Tuesday night to approve a $20 million purchase of two adjacent buildings in the Irvine Business Complex.
The homeless shelter is expected to offer beds in addition to medical care, case management and other services.
City Manager Oliver Chi said the city has already hired a Chief Health and Wellness Director who will build out a staff that’s embedded in the facility.
It’s slated to become the first homeless shelter in the city — something residents heavily opposed six years ago when the idea was briefly floated by the OC Board of Supervisors.
“We definitely need to be taking care of our homeless population,” Councilmember Kathleen Treseder said. “I hear from residents they notice the population is increasing. As far as I understand it’s mostly elderly folks and women with children. We need to make sure they are taken care of.”
Councilmember Mike Carroll voted no, saying it’s “extreme” to approve a purchase that’s rushed and expensive without robust community feedback or any commission oversight.
“You should not casually put your vote down on $20 million on a facility that could bring a lot of difficulty to our city if it isn’t fully fleshed out,” Carroll said.
[Read: Is a Homeless Shelter Coming to Irvine?]
The building purchase did not go through any commission review. Instead, it was rushed by staff who emphasized the importance of moving quickly to purchase this site before the opportunity was lost.
Chi said in order to acquire the property, the city was required to put down a nonrefundable $1 million deposit by Oct. 24 — two days after the item was introduced and approved by the council for the first time.
The shelter is part of a larger, multi-pronged effort to address homeless and at-risk populations within the city — a project called “The System.”
The System includes creating the homeless shelter — meant to function as a bridge housing facility — creating more transitional housing and gaining control of more affordable housing with local preferences.
The project also seeks to strengthen the city’s mobile crisis response program.
That response team was previously contracted out through Be Well OC and will soon be brought in-house through the Irvine Police Department.
The site for the homeless shelter — called “The Sanctuary” — is the first major step in this effort.
The city is expected to close on the purchase and search for an operator starting next month.
At the first council meeting in November, staff is also expected to bring forth an updated anti-camping ordinance for council discussion.
It’s a move officials across the county have been approving after a Supreme Court decision this summer gave cities more power to enforce anti-camping laws — citing people for sleeping in public.
The Supreme Court Justices’ ruling in the Grants Pass v. Johnson case reversed the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal ruling in Martin v. Boise, which mandated that cities must provide a certain number of beds before they can push homeless people off the streets.
Other cities like San Clemente, Aliso Viejo and Anaheim strengthened their anti-camping laws earlier this year after the Supreme Court decision.
[Read: Is Orange County About To Enforce Anti-Camping Laws Again?]
It’s not the first time officials have tried to establish a shelter in Irvine.
In 2018, hundreds of people protested against plans for a homeless shelter in Irvine, raising concerns about drug use and safety risks for local children. Thousands also showed up to an OC Board of Supervisors meeting to protest the county’s proposal, which officials ultimately shot down.
A year later, Irvine and four other south OC cities found themselves at the receiving end of a federal lawsuit calling out the region’s lack of shelters.
Some residents at Tuesday night’s meeting expressed concern that the shelter would attract more homeless people from outside the city looking for services.
“If Irvine does this, and it works the way we think it will, it’s going to be very successful,” one resident said. “What’s going to stop that facility from being overrun with homeless people from other cities? Not to say they shouldn’t be helped, but what’s going to stop that from happening?”
Chi said the shelter could require people to have some sort of connection to Irvine before they’re allowed in.
Councilmember Tammy Kim asked about funding and billing, emphasizing the model needs to be sustainable because a project like this “could suck a city dry.”
Chi emphasized that many of the services offered at the future shelter — medical care and case management — could be reimbursed through the state’s CalAIM program, which uses Medi-Cal dollars to improve healthcare, especially for the homeless population.
The council is expected to bring back an update on The System to council sometime next year.
“I really think this initiative is really going to set us apart because it’s comprehensive,” Kim said. “It’s a comprehensive care model that integrates multiple facets that no other city has been able to achieve at this point.”
“What makes this plan so aspirational is the compassionate care that it brings.”
Angelina Hicks is a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13
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