County Urged to Give More Assistance to the Homeless

The government of Orange County needs to do more to provide the housing, emergency shelters and monetary assistance the homeless need, the leader of the Orange County Coalition on the Homeless said Thursday.

The coalition also released the results of a survey taken in May that shows a majority of the homeless who lacked funds to pay for housing were white and had lived in Orange County for more than one year, said Bobbie Lovell, the group’s leader.

“These are our people,” she said.

At a press conference, the group also said that a county task force named in January to study area housing needs and the plight of the homeless has never met.

Lovell said preliminary results of the study, undertaken by county agency workers and other volunteers, show that many homeless in the county are victims of high housing costs. Many said they could not afford first and last months’ rent for an apartment, or that rent was raised until it dangled just above their reach.

“When asked why they didn’t have housing, 69% said ‘because there is no housing I can afford,’ ” she said.

Interviewers also found that 60% of those who sleep in places such as garbage dumpsters, abandoned cars and roadway bushes were white. Over half had a high school education or better, and the group was surprisingly young--40% fell into the 20-40 age group, and 1,736 of those interviewed were children.

Lovell said the homeless did not fit the stereotypical image of “transients eating out of garbage cans.”

Most of the people interviewed were not just “passing through,” Lovell said. She said 69% had lived in Orange County for a year or longer, and most of those had lived here more than 10 years.

Although the study is not a scientific sample--some volunteers were hampered by a lack of Spanish-speaking interviewers--she said results show trends that she hopes will shape policy in the future.

Asked whether the number of homeless is increasing, Lovell said, “We don’t know because the county’s statistics on the homeless are extremely limited and often inaccurate.”

The group has asked the county to work more closely with private developers and offer them government aid to build affordable housing. It also recommended that private non-profit agencies administer community shelters on a contract basis.

Currently, private groups who operate shelters must often undergo administrative “hassles” to care for the poor, according to Kathy Chase, development officer for the Christian Outreach Mission in Santa Ana.

She said the mission’s 35 beds are “full every night” with people who can’t afford rent. “A woman and child on welfare are only getting $461 a month for everything, and that doesn’t do it,” she said.

“I think they (county officials) need to consider building more shelters and supporting agencies that want to build them,” said Chase. “They are not always cooperative with private agencies who have to go through a lot of hassles to help the poor.”

Kelly Keuscher, social services aide to Orange County Supervisor Harriett Wieder, said the County Interagency Task Force on Housing was created in January to improve coordination of county programs and study the needs of the homeless. Kreuscher said that to his knowledge the group has not met.

He said the problem of the homeless will be addressed during countybudget hearings beginning Wednesday. Meanwhile, he said, the county Social Services Agency has been conducting a housing study for “several months,” and county supervisors are expected to “take some action” on that report next week.

However, he said some of the responsiblity lies with individual cities which may refuse to allow shelters because of opposition from city residents.

Rusty Kennedy, executive director of the county’s Human Relations Commission, said the county also provides general relief for shelters for low-income and otherwise homeless people. Those between the ages of 18 and 62 who have no other means of support and no children are eligible for up to $261 a month under the program.

He said the county also contributes funds to community shelters and distributes federal emergency management funds to aid the homeless.

Loans for the so-called “motel homeless” are available under a federal grant through the Community Development Council, which has $60,000 in funds for 45 loans to applicants who are 62 or older, are disabled or have a dependent child, a council spokesman said. No county funds are involved, but the county administers the program, according to Kennedy.

The coalition’s survey showed that most of the homeless sleep outdoors on the streets and in cars, as well as at beaches and churches, under bridges and in abandoned buildings, Lovell said. Many who are hiding from police to avoid vagrancy charges “hang out” in all-night coffee shops, laundromats and jail waiting rooms.

Only a small percentage stay in shelters and in hotels or motels, she said. A survey of Orange County hotel and motel room rates released by the coalition revealed that only one hotel in the county charges under $21 per night.