ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : A Clearer Look at Our Homeless

By its very nature, the homeless population is difficult to count. But the Orange County Homeless Issues Task Force has tried, using 17 social services agencies to conduct the most comprehensive accounting of area homelessness to date. The findings provide a useful look at those who seek services. It’s a far more complex picture than one of shiftless transients looking for a handout.

Among other things, the survey of 1,070 people, taken last year, found that one-third of the homeless who were questioned had a total of about 700 children. Nearly two-thirds were white. A third were women. Nearly two-thirds finished high school; one-quarter had some college education. About 40% had lived in Orange County for more than a decade.

Other findings: Seventy-five percent said they needed help getting a job and, not surprisingly, 80% reported needing help in finding affordable housing. This in a county where the average cost of renting an apartment is $773 a month. Many of the homeless are people who are simply a paycheck or two away from getting on their feet.

By more carefully identifying those without housing, the survey can be a useful tool in dealing with the problem of homelessness. A countywide task force should be encouraged in its efforts to develop single-room occupancy residential hotels. SROs cost less than most rental housing, do not require deposits and have helped fill the housing gap in San Diego and Los Angeles counties. They can help some of the homeless save enough money to get into an apartment.

But the survey also should prove useful in discrediting the notion that the homeless, estimated at 5,000 to 10,000 in Orange County, can be lumped into one category. This is dehumanizing and, as the survey indicates, simply not the case.