Plight of Homeless Spurs Supervisors

The plight of homeless families moving in and out of motels across the county every week prompted Orange County supervisors Tuesday to recommend hiring a homeless-programs coordinator, a position eliminated three years ago during the county’s bankruptcy.

Supervisors asked county staff to work out details on the position and return next month for approval. The coordinator would report to the county’s executive officer, Jan Mittermeier.

Supervisors are trying to boost public awareness of programs that aid Orange County’s nearly 12,000 homeless residents, following a report on motel families from county Social Services Agency Director Larry Leaman.

Adults and children living temporarily in motels are considered homeless, but there is no separate accounting for the number of people living this way, Leaman said.

Motel families include those making less than $20,000 a year, or $10 an hour, who cannot afford to pay hefty deposits required for apartments in the county. In motels, family members are forced to live in one room, the report says.

Many cities have passed ordinances outlawing motel stays of more than 30 days, so families constantly must move. As a result, the children are one or two grades behind their peers, according to Project Dignity, a private organization that helps homeless families.

Other problems that plague these families are health ailments, hunger, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence and basic poverty, officials said. Studies show that police officers are called to residential motels an average of once a day, said Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who initiated the motel children report.

Supervisor William G. Steiner, a former director of the county’s home for abused and abandoned children, said, “We have more than just a child welfare issue on our hands with these families. This [bears upon] the human infrastructure of Orange County and ultimately, the quality of life of Orange County.”

There are about 14,000 families in Orange County receiving housing subsidies, and 15,000 more families are on waiting lists. Those waiting lists are so full that three of the county’s four housing agencies stopped adding families to their lists two years ago, the report said.

Activist Alan Baldwin of the Homeless Issues Task Force said the county has added fewer than 50 low-income housing units in recent years. The highest concentration of homeless families is in Anaheim and Santa Ana, but plans for a 56-unit low-income housing project in Anaheim call for single occupancy only, not families.

The Orange County Rescue Mission last month began providing aid to families at two of the largest residential motels in Anaheim. The aid includes a food bank, flu inoculations and job referrals, mission president Jim Palmer said.