ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Make Her Day--Today

Today in Orange County, a homeless person is as likely to be a single mother with one or more children as to be a stereotypical bum. These families find themselves on the street in an area where rents are sky high and child- care costs can eat up a minimum-wage salary quicker than you can say “fast-food burger.”

The head of one of the county’s biggest charities, Episcopal Service Alliance/South County, estimates that 30% of the 2,000 people who seek help at ESA are single mothers and their children. But there are very few shelters for them.

No private agency--and there are far too few of them, anyway--can make a meaningful dent in this societal problem. But at least some are trying. A new one is Single Mothers in Partnership, a South County group that will attempt to bring these women together to help each other, and perhaps even to share housing. Also, some single mothers may be matched with senior citizens who have large enough homes--and hearts--to accommodate homeless families. The organization is holding its first event today in the basement of Mission San Juan Capistrano.

There are an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 homeless in Orange County, and for all this has been a hard summer. That’s partly because one of the largest charities, Share Our Selves, has been shut down. SOS is renovating new quarters in Costa Mesa after being evicted from its long-term home at Rea Community Center. It will reopen in September.

Meanwhile, other poverty agencies are being inundated. Alarmed at the situation, United Way and the Orange County Homeless Issues Task Force this week launched a summer emergency food and shelter campaign. The campaign’s aims are ambitious: Raise $1 million, collect 500,000 pounds of food and enlist 1,000 volunteers by mid-August.

Supporting this effort is one of those things like apple pie and motherhood. It should be unquestioned.