Costa Mesa touts progress in combatting homelessness, addresses residents’ concerns
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Costa Mesa officials hailed the city as a leader in combating homelessness in Orange County while fielding residents’ concerns about safety, funding and more during a public forum earlier this month.
About 100 people attended the Homelessness Solutions town hall held Oct. 15 in the Norma Hertzog Community Center. Attendees mingled with public and nonprofit groups that provide support to people living on the streets before hearing a detailed presentation on the work they’ve been doing in the city.
Costa Mesa runs its own bridge shelter, and the city’s street community outreach teams manage the cases of about 150 people each month. Since 2019, they’ve helped as many as 252 people who had been homeless get into some form of housing, according to the city’s neighborhood improvement manager, Nate Robbins.
“It takes a special kind of person to get up every day and do what they do out in the rain, in the cold and meet people where they’re at,” Robbins said. “It’s not just work to them. They’re not just checking boxes. They’re out there loving on people and helping them move forward in their lives.”
The city will has also agreed to host two permanent supportive housing complexes, made possible with Project Homekey funds. Made from converted motels, the facilities offer subsidized affordable housing and support services like job training or mental health treatment.
One, the former Motel 6 on Newport Boulevard, now known as the Mesa Vista Apartments, is currently leasing to 40 people who were either homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, including 10 veterans. An expansion of 46 additional units for very-low income seniors should be completed by April, Robbins said.
The second, a former Travelodge on Bristol Street that will become the Avon River Apartments, will bring another 76 units of supportive housing to the city. It’s expected to open in May, Robbins said.
Robbins highlighted the impact CalOptima’s street medicine program has had since it launched last August. The clinic on wheels is now the primary source of healthcare for 90 members of Costa Mesa’s homeless population.
Resident Jim Fitzpatrick raised concerns over safety around permanent supportive housing sites in the city, noting that Costa Mesa police had been summoned to the Mesa Vista Apartments 188 times over the past year.
Robbins acknowledged issues at the facility, saying the property management company that had been managing Mesa Vista has been replaced. A new company is in the process of implementing 24-hour security, upgraded lighting and cameras, he said.
“We should see a drastic improvement there in the future, especially with the 46 senior units coming online in just six months,” Robbins said. “So it’s vital that we get those issues under control, and we’re working on it as we speak.”
He said the city’s approach toward homelessness is focused on providing aid and shelter, but it also relies on police, public works and code enforcement personnel to prevent the development of encampments on public property. In 2024, officials cleared out 110 homeless encampments, mostly in the areas of Fairview and Talbert parks, Costa Mesa Police Capt. Bryan Wadkins told attendees.
Wadkins said the department’s Community Policing Unit, comprising four officers and a sergeant specializing in calls involving the homeless community, helped 20 people get into a detox program last year. They also made 255 arrests and issued 28 citations.
“That can, a lot of times, be the wake-up call that’s needed, and then the services are accepted,” Robbins said of interactions between police and people living on the street.
Some residents attending the town hall asked if the city might ramp up efforts to dismantle encampments in light of a decision by the Supreme Court last June allowing municipalities to enforce anti-camping laws regardless of whether they can offer the people they cite alternative housing.
“Could we make it more punitive? Theoretically we could,” Costa Mesa City Atty. Kim Barlow said Costa Mesa’s policy on encampments. “But what we are doing is working.”
Resident Jenn Tanaka asked if widespread cuts to federal grant funding being pursued by the Trump administration would affect Costa Mesa’s efforts to fight homelessness.
Robbins replied that the city does not use any direct funding to run its programs, although “there’s some federal dollars that get pushed through the states that could potentially affect us.”
He noted dramatic cuts to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Housing Choice Voucher program, commonly known as Section 8, would make it difficult to open additional supportive housing facilities. However, he said, “we already have two [supportive housing complexes]; I don’t imagine we’re going to get a third, so it wouldn’t necessarily affect us directly.”
Some residents asked if Costa Mesa might become a “victim of its own success,” by creating such an effective network that it encourages more homeless people to move into the city.
Robbins said case managers ensure the people making use of the city’s services are from Costa Mesa, while referring non-residents to the appropriate agencies. But he also acknowledged that other cities may not have the same level of support for their homeless populations.
“Unfortunately, a lot of times, if cities are left to their own devices they will, a lot of times, choose not to do anything,” Robbins said. “But I also think it’s important to point out that some studies have been done and, right, wrong or indifferent, the numbers show it costs twice as much to do nothing as it does to do something.”
