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At their March 13 meeting, the OC Board of Supervisors (BOS) seemed to think it would be satisfactory to relocate all our homeless residents currently in motels directly to shelter beds. That would be both unacceptable and impossible.
There are over 700 residents in motels who are ready to go into “Permanent Supportive Housing” (PSH), but BOS inaction over the last decade has resulted in a serious shortage of this necessary housing.
The only shelter beds that have been added since late February are 90 new beds at Kramer. We’ve got approximately 700 people currently housed in motels. A kindergartner could do the math and tell you there’s a significant problem here.
We do, however, have a new animal shelter built on 10 acres of land in beautiful Tustin. The BOS spent $35 million for an animal shelter with air-conditioning and heated floors, surgical suites and noise reducing walls. Dogs can frolic in one of 8 grass play areas too. The animal shelter is a thousand times nicer than the Courtyard which is a people shelter.- an open air bus terminal that has rain pouring in during stormy times.
Another comparison is Bridges at Kramer – $12 million was spent for a people shelter with bunk beds stacked like a prison and a concrete parking lot to play in, or not.
The Courtyard in Santa Ana gets 700 calls for police services per month, in addition to the emergency calls for fire and paramedics services. That is one ton of money right out of the taxpayers pocket, to not even give folks a roof over their heads.
The armories are not a viable option for several reasons:
- They will be closing soon for the spring, putting hundreds more out on the streets at night.
- They close every morning at 6, discharging all their homeless to wander the streets all day.
- They are a physically unacceptable option for people with any sort of disability.
It is my opinion, in closely working with the homeless population, that most if not all of the riverbed residents would qualify under the broad definition of the ADA. If they don’t suffer from a physical disability, then they suffer from mental disabilities; if it’s not mental disabilities then it could be addictions; if it’s not addictions then its PTSD or anxiety disorder or stress disorder all of which are protected by the ADA.
These homeless people have been traumatized and hundreds are unable to cope in a room with hundreds of other people. Many of them are unable to lie on the ground on a mat, and they are still discharged at 6AM every morning to wander the streets when the armories close.
Their stay in the motels needs to be extended until the BOS and cities figure out how to correct their mistakes of the past decade, until they figure out where to house these residents or until Judge Carter forces them all to do the right thing.
It is also necessary to get the BOS member and DA candidate TODD SPITZER under control. He needs to stop spewing his negatively infused distorted rhetoric on KFI. He has helped to fuel the NIMBY flames by his inflammatory radio statements which have resulted in a backlash from city governments where homeless residents are being sheltered.
When you have a media-seeking OC supervisor manipulating the truth either on TV or the radio it is not only detrimental to the ability for anyone to shelter these people but also puts their general well being at risk. His job is not propaganda minister. Should any harm come to any of these residents it will be on his head and the BOS that seem to refuse to take responsibility for any of this mess.
There is just one federally mandated answer dating back to Bush Senior and fact-based studies: PSH, Permanent Supportive Housing.
Yeah Jeannie, it is turnover time. The BOS is so scared(How scared are they?) that they had to rob $90 Million from their little secret Mental Care Trust Fund —- to possibly apply
it to the Homeless Issue. There are a couple of things to consider here. Last month LA
County counted 58,400 Homeless folks. Today the are counting 24,500…..hmmm. Of course the Homeless are a mobile group. You kick them out of the riverbed……and they move to other cities like Fullerton, Anaheim, Costa Mesa and Fountain Valley for example. This movable feast goes from San Diego to Northern California. It is the perfect Whack-a-Mole model. Systemic and Endemic in high rent areas….should be the call here. The Fairview Facility on Harbor Blvd. could hold a couple of 1000 in tents with Security and putting all the Veterans, Single Moms with kids, Single Dads with Kids and several Mentally impaired Seniors. Separating the wheat from the chaff as it were. Thanks so much for take on this…..very correct. The one caveat is that when they moved the folks out of the Riverbed that took their pets away……so – what happened to their pets? Were they euthanized…..or what?
During the Anaheim Hills fires, the County bent over backwards to accommodate the horses and other farm animals owned by the wealthy residents of Anaheim Hills and Orange Park Acres including coordinating evacuation locations. What we know now is that a horse owned by a wealthy person is more highly valued by the County than a human being without shelter.
Todd likes to spread the lie that the BoS knew nothing about the 200 million in grant money they had to deal with homelessness but they’ve been collecting interest on that money and using it for pet projects. Shame on BoS
Not my America! Perhaps the most Red County in America has shown their true FACE. Our homeless population has been forced lived in total fear due to OUR BOS. It is a disgrace on our society and the day when Housing as a Human Right for all is coming.
OC Supervisor Todd Spitzer choked big time during his tenure dealing with the homeless in a humane and dignified way. He admits it was wrong in not take action 3 years ago. However he has spent millions to house and treat our dog population properly and humanely.
Chairman Mr. Do announced in court Saturday His leadership has failed and his ability to lead the BOS has been insufficient. Look who he had to work with? Shawn Nelson, Michelle Steel, Lisa A. Bartlett and Todd Spitzer.
In the meantime our homeless suffered and continues today. His fellow BS’ers also have not delivered! Times UP! Replace them. The price we pay for having 5 Supervisors with a Republican Agenda and no common sense or dignity.
Ashamed but I (and many others) will be in the field again today to help as I can. Looking for a bigger payoff! Great article
Lisa bartlett is unopposed in this years election. She should be subject to recall over this come November. No more Republican BoS candidates should get the vites this year. It’s been Too long and the GOP cannot be trusted to do the job they run for. Elect Joe Kerr to BoS and recall Bartlett.
Bartlett is also financially tied to a mall developer (gotta find out his name again) who will profit immensely from the way Bartlett’s TCA wants to route the 241 extension into San Clemente. No doubt why she’s adamant in favor of that and against her south county constituents.
*Good to know about her position on the Toll Road….the folks here in San Clemente don’t think that is much of a laughing matter….and anyone running
against her and against the Toll Road will get their vote…..including ours…now
that we know!
*One more for Bartlett: She doesn’t want any Homeless folks in Laguna Niguel….nice touch! Pandering to the NIMBY’s…says she is starting to feel the hear….Who is running against her?
Also incompetent liar… She VOTED for the plan to put homeless in LN, and then tried to talk her way out of it.
Duh. Nobody is running against her, that’s a scandal in itself. As Zenger has said, Joe Kerr shoulda stayed at home and run against her, then he wouldn’t be looking at carpetbagging charges and we’d 100% have his back.
“Joe Kerr shoulda stayed at home”
Vern, what makes you think he ever left? Nobody was fooled by the fake address in Brea and now that he has doubled down with a fake address in Placentia he looks even sillier.
You notice his official press releases never mentions his domicile.
You should ask Coto Joe how come he didn’t run against Barlett – his own Supervisor since he lives in the 5th District.
Least he can do is fire the consultant who made the recommendation in the first place.
What’s really ironic is that his consultant is the same one whom Josh Newman used – after Newman beat the carpetbaggin’ Sukhee Kang.
Great Article Jeanine!!
That den of iniquity commonly referred to as the ‘Board of Supervisors’ has shown their incompetence they’re complete incompetence in action while at the same time favoring the rich the affluent in this County, and on until Federal Judge David O. Carter,grab the Board of Supervisors by the neck and told them, I’m not asking you I’m telling you you have to do something, and this, at the same time the county has failed, much of the states in this country have failed, and the federal government itself has failed, to address this issue that is long overdue and with so many people that are private citizens have come together and worked without compensation, hours and hours to help those in need that it’s “We the People” brought this to a head and we the people will make it work because, Society and The Future of Human Civilization, Demands it!!.
Interesting post, a good one. You may have noticed that Ms Mercado is already being attacked not by the usual “law abiding, tax-paying, concerned homeowner” crusader of Orange running the Anaheimblog, but by one of his counterpart’s fictitious characters in the LiberalOC: David Vasquez. This character’s criticism sounds like something Cunningham would say.
This fictitious Vasquez has also for the second time made the absurd accusation that I have harassed his family. I have asked Dan C to delete this defamatory accusation, hoping that he would be classy enough to do so. This same character does not want OJB to do posts on the FB/Cambridge Analytica helping the Trump campaign. He may be pleased that the OJB has a post on the very politically relevant March madness tournament.
Cambridge Analytica? Here’s a video –
After arbitrary and selective account closings, censorship, and trouble grasping the concept of user privacy,(despite heavy financial support from the Government (taxpayer)) some have suggested that “Big Data” ( FaceBook, Google, Amazon, etc) be regulated as public utilities. Not necessarily a solution, but certainly a start for discussion.
Good Job Jeanine, like I have always said if there had been 1,500 stray dogs on the Santa Ana riverbed the governor would had mobilized the national guard to get them into homes. Poor and sick people, not so
much.
Please add my e-mail to the distribution. I am a recent volunteer to the homeless relief group and I am trying to learn all I can.
Two points:
1) It took years and years for animal advocates applying pressure to get the Supervisors to build a new shelter to replace the dismal compound on City Drive. But even more importantly;
2) There was no doubt support by both County staff and lobbyists to promote the $35,000,000 shelter since it would entail a very large design and build contract to somebody who had properly greased the 5th Floor skids.
The Supervisors don’t give a damn about anything that can’t be used for their self-promotion and aggrandizement. As we are now seeing, there has been no perceived political upside for addressing the homeless issue over the years. Ironically, we now see the political downside of deliberate failure to govern.