Grand Jury Faults Orangewood Expansion

A proposal for a $39-million expansion of the county’s emergency shelter for abused children should be scaled back because it is inconsistent with county, state and federal efforts to keep families together, according to an Orange County Grand Jury report.

The county recommendation to add 280 beds at Orangewood Children’s Home in Orange, which now has 236 beds, were made before a dramatic downturn in the shelter’s population, the report stated.

“The average population for the five years prior to 1999 ranged from 231 to 265 children,” grand jury foreman Philip S. Inglee said. “The 1999 average population of 110 children represents the lowest daily average since 1985.”

Grand jurors toured Orangewood last year and, based on news media reports and “extensive orientation material” given them by officials with social services agencies, had expected to see serious overcrowding, according to the report, released last week. The panel found, however, that “only 51% of the available beds were occupied.”

Michael Riley, director of Children and Family Services for the county, said the agency is preparing a response to the panel citing areas his agency “has already addressed or reconciled.”

“Obviously we have concerns with what they pointed out,” Riley said.

The agency has altered its strategic plan, which now would rely more on services and programs than on beds. The latest proposal calls for construction of a 30- to 40-bed facility in Tustin, Riley said, that would be leased by a nonprofit agency.

The grand jury credited the county’s Social Services Agency for the significant drop in shelter care as a result of prevention services and programs to keep children with relatives.

It recommended against any major expansion at Orangewood, suggesting that the money could either “be saved or used to support” programs that keep endangered children in a family setting and help pay for parental counseling.

The county is one of 12 in the state operating 24-hour emergency children’s shelters. Orangewood is one of the largest.

The proposal to expand it to 516 beds was among Social Services Agency’s projects for the next fiscal year.

The grand jury found that the agency has been accelerating placements of children, however, and in some cases is bypassing Orangewood.