Much Was Given, but the Need Grows : * Holidays Highlighted the Plight of the Homeless

The holiday period brought us the sight in Orange County of thousands waiting in line for food. At the same time, it was encouraging that thousands also gave of their time and effort in volunteer work to meet a growing need.

While the holidays summon a special sense of giving and obligation, it should be clear that what we have seen in the way of need is a byproduct of a newly urbanized culture. Orange County has changed, and the overwhelming necessity for stepped-up volunteer efforts poses a challenge for the future.

Orange County thus learned much about itself this holiday season. Somehow, with the preoccupations of the recession and their own families to think about, more than 800 adults and children crowded the Orange County Rescue Mission office on Christmas Day to volunteer in a giant food giveaway program.

In another instance, the local Red Cross disaster action team offered food, clothing and financial assistance to a family on welfare whose apartment was gutted in a Christmas Eve fire, and a bag filled with Christmas gifts was brought to replace those lost by the children.

The Dana Point Athletic Club’s 1,000 members contributed shoes that will go to a nonprofit organization that delivers aid to the homeless in Southern California. Costa Mesa police sponsored a Christmas giveaway that helped 186 families this year, more than three times the number of families projected to be helped. These are just some of the holiday efforts that demonstrated the goodwill of Orange County residents during this difficult time.

But as much as people learned of their own capacity for giving, they discovered the stark reality of the times in Orange County--need has never been greater.

For example, those hundreds of volunteers who helped on Christmas Day at the Orange County Rescue Mission were greeted with an incredible line of about 5,000 homeless and needy people who turned out to receive food and gifts.

Local charity officials said the recession had brought forward many more people in need this season, and one official noted, “People need more help this year than they’ve ever had before.”

For one thing, homelessness has grown in a county that increasingly has urbanized. Officials estimate that there are about 12,000 homeless people in Orange County today, a quarter of them children.

With many people only a missed paycheck from homelessness, Barbara W. Johnson, executive director of the Fullerton Interfaith Emergency Service, a nonprofit social service agency, concludes, “More and more people are falling off the edge.”

Clearly, one lesson of the season is that the need still will not go away after the holidays. And Carol Stone, president of the Volunteer Center of Orange County, notes that Orange County falls below the national average for the number of hours each resident spends volunteering.

That’s food for thought after the holidays and for the new year. And in Orange County, donations to charities and nonprofit groups have declined, even though the need is greater than ever. One sign of that need came at a recent Volunteer Center seminar on fund raising, held for some of the 1,200 charities and other nonprofit organizations in the county. It was standing-room only.

Those who have shown the rest of us the way over the holidays are to be commended. Their inspirational efforts show that, with all the resources available in this county, much can be done to meet these needs.