Growth Industry: Providing Shelter : Increase in Homelessness Has Caught County Short

Orange County’s 30 months of recession have taken their toll on bank accounts as well as spirits. Among the county’s too-often forgotten homeless population, there are some new faces in 1993. In 1993, the county should carry forward some of the efforts that began in recent months to help the new class of homeless people--those who once shopped with credit cards and held mortgages.

As reported recently in a Times article, these are some former high-tech workers, unemployed accountants, and people who in the 1980s used charge cards at fashionable department stores who are now homeless. As the county’s long-prevailing myth of affluence is shaken by the highest jobless rate in about a decade--7%--the county faces its sternest test ever to provide transitional housing and assistance to keep more of the 97,100 people in Orange County without jobs from falling further through the safety net. Santa Ana’s state unemployment office, for example, is now one of the busiest in the state.

Sandee Gordon, director of the 110-bed Orange Coast Interfaith Shelter, says she has never seen anything quite like it: “We’re seeing people in our shelter who had six months’ savings in the bank and went through that.” The unlucky sixes continue for many others: officials report a discouraging 28% increase this year in the number of people who exhausted their six-month unemployment benefits. Before the recession, the average amount of time that people spent looking for work was eight weeks in Orange County, according to the state Employment Development Division in Santa Ana. Obviously, eight weeks seems to pass a little more quickly than ever nowadays for those out of work.

The plight of the new homeless points up again the inadequacy of the county’s current preparedness for dealing with the homeless population. The county has about 1,000 temporary beds to serve the estimated 12,000 homeless people in Orange County. And because most of these are in transitional 60-day shelters, there are very few in year-round permanent shelters.

The situation hasn’t been helped by scandal. The Irvine Temporary Housing Agency, which provides just what the doctor ordered for the new homeless population, got caught off guard last year by a financial scandal. More such short-term--and well-managed--housing for homeless families in transition is needed.

Then there were the two reports that showed how badly Orange County was doing in terms of providing affordable housing, one issued locally, and another national snapshot that found that 8 in 10 poor families in Orange County were forced to spend at least half their income on housing, making it the second-worst place in the nation for providing affordable housing.

Last year, the county made progress. Toward the end of the year, County Supervisors approved several key projects designed to provide low-income housing. The County Housing Authority is mobilizing to use millions of dollars that were locked up in a reserve account for federal housing funds. This is a start.

The board also approved a $1.7-million loan that would give Orange County its first single-room occupancy project, in Costa Mesa. Santa Ana recently put back on track a plan to turn the old YMCA building downtown into an SRO. But other cities can do more, too.

Mostly, dealing with the new homeless population requires a change of heart. It demands recognition that homelessness exists here in affluent Orange County. And for too many, it may be only a missed paycheck away.