A Regional Approach to Homelessness : Individual Cities Can’t Make It Go Away by Ducking Issue, Closing Outreach Programs

Outsiders are often surprised to learn that there are homeless people in Orange County, but residents know they are an all-too-frequent sight on streets from Buena Park to San Clemente. Estimates put the number of homeless in the county between 10,000 and 15,000; some say half of them are children. But there are some encouraging signs that city and county officials recognize the problem and are confronting it.

Costa Mesa is one city where officials say the number of homeless has been increasing. To their credit, city leaders have not tried to duck the issue or close the borders to the less fortunate.

This month City Council members and charitable groups listened to a homeless man talk about life on the streets at a community forum where nearly 100 people turned out. That’s an impressive number. Many residents offered thoughtful comments about their fear of aggressive panhandlers or the need to help the mentally ill wandering the streets.

Last year Costa Mesa passed an ordinance outlawing aggressive panhandling. Officials tried to draw the measure with care, and Sandra L. Genis, then the mayor, correctly noted that free speech issues were involved. The current mayor, Joe Erickson, also struck the right note this month in calling for a regional approach to homelessness. Santa Ana officials also have urged a search for regional solutions, recognizing that it is unfair for one city to accept the burden.

Some Costa Mesa residents wrongly have recommended that nonprofit organizations in the city that help the homeless should shut down. They argue that without facilities offering food and shelter, the homeless will move somewhere else. But the shelters and food stations are a response to a problem; they do not cause it.

The organization formerly known as the Episcopal Service Alliance, now simply called ESA, runs shelters in San Clemente and Orange. Its centers offering emergency help with food, clothing, housing, transportation and utilities operate in Anaheim, Huntington Beach and Santa Ana. That shows the widespread geography of the homeless.

One of the biggest boosters of a regional approach was Maria Mendoza, the county’s homeless-issues coordinator. Unfortunately, Mendoza was laid off as part of the budget slashing to cope with the bankruptcy. The day she lost her job she cited as her office’s biggest accomplishment getting the county and cities to sit around a table and search for a better approach to ending homelessness. That is an effort that has to continue.