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Orange County cities are increasingly offering motel vouchers and church beds to homeless people during extreme weather after attempts to set up a cold weather shelter failed for the second year in a row.
While several cities have run programs like this in the past, they’re growing in popularity after the short-term shelters at the National Guard armories in Fullerton and Santa Ana have been closed for the past two winters.
[Read: Santana: A Colder Side To OC]
This year, county supervisors have already greenlit over $225,000 for motel voucher programs in both the county’s second district and the City of Fullerton, citing the need for somewhere for people to go.
Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento was the first one to pitch such a program at the county level, approving $200,000 for motel vouchers slated for homeless families in the district he represents – cities like Santa Ana, Anaheim and Garden Grove, where a bulk of Orange County’s homeless residents sleep on the streets.
“We feel really optimistic about this pilot program for district two families that have children that are housing insecure,” Sarmiento said at the board’s Jan. 15 meeting. “This is a very, very small effort relative to the need, but we have to start somewhere.”
Last week, Supervisor Doug Chaffee approved a similar program, sending $25,000 to the City of Fullerton to support the local motel voucher program.
“When we asked cities to step up and help with emergency vouchers during the winter, not many did,” Chaffee said at the meeting last Tuesday. “But Fullerton did step up and create a program.”
Fullerton’s program is funded through a mix of county and federal funds, and is set to offer homeless residents with children and seniors a place to sleep at the Willow Tree Lodge, according to a city staff report.
Churches Become Shelters
In other cities, there’s a different route – teaming up with local churches and nonprofits to put people up for the night.
The City of Costa Mesa is partnered exclusively with Lighthouse Church of the Nazarene according to city spokesman Tony Dodero, who said they open it up when the weather gets bad.
“The church has a capacity for 40 people max and is open 24 hours a day, with meals provided and free medical exams,” Dodero wrote in a statement.
The City of Anaheim tried a similar program out last year when no cold weather shelter opened, with $137,000 of assistance from the county to get the program off the ground and offering 50 beds across four churches.
[Read: Orange County to Open New Emergency Shelters in Anaheim as Homeless Deaths Rise]
But this year officials didn’t renew the program, instead saying they had enough space in the existing shelters to cover the needs for cold weather, according to city spokesman Mike Lyster.
“We have beds available through our shelter, the 325-bed Anaheim Emergency Shelter, the county’s 200-bed Bridges at Kraemer Place in Anaheim, as well as through nonprofits we work with,” Lyster said. “Even if we get closer to full, we always have beds accessible for our police outreach officers to provide.”
He also noted that the cold weather program last year only served around 74 people, with a peak of 12 in one night and that they averaged five to six people who would take advantage of the beds a night.
Supervisor Katrina Foley highlighted programs in Dana Point and Laguna Beach as well, asking county staff to compile a full list of which cities were offering services and which were not.
“That would be helpful to get a better picture on what’s happening,” Foley said. “While some cities didn’t respond in participating in the commission to end homelessness’ outreach they’re still doing things.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.
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