Homeless Seminar Tries to Educate Policymakers

On Friday about 50 people gathered to listen to a panel talk about homelessness in Orange County. Among the people there were Mayor Voigts, Col. Tom Cagley, Jose Vergara (ETWD), and OC UnderSheriff Don Barnes as well as City Council members from RSM, Mission Viejo, and Dana Point. The meeting was held at the OC Association of Realtors in Laguna Hills.

Dr. David Snow from UCI presented data which is reproduced here. A good portion of his data was based on over 250 interviews, but bear in mind, data based on interviews is always suspect and in this case, many of the people interviewed suffered from chronic health problems and years of alcohol and drug abuse. So the reliability and validity of their recollections must be suspect. That being said, here are the highlights of the meeting –

DEMOGRAPHICS

• 68% of the people had been homeless for more than 10 years
• 47% were non-Hispanic white
• 57% were males
• 90% were born in the U.S.
• 6% of children are homeless or in “unstable housing”

COSTS PER YEAR

• Cities - $120,000,000
• Hospitals - $77,000,000
• County - $62,000,000
• Non profit agencies - $35,000,000

COSTS PER AREA

• Health - $121,000,000
• Housing - $106,000,000
• Police - $23,000,000

ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS

• A chronic homeless person costs $100,000 per year, but if you put them in transitional housing, the cost drops to $51,587.
• When housed, a formerly homeless person uses ambulances 78% less often and gets arrested 100% less.

TRENDS

The number of homeless is rising. From 2016 to 2017 the increase was 7%. In 2017 the estimated homeless population is 5,000 people. In Lake Forest it is about 60.

In the past, homelessness was usually a matter of choice or due to economic problems (often triggered by health problems). More recently, governments are witnessing more homeless people as a result of changes in criminal proceedings (AB 109 and Prop 47, early release programs) and also graduates and drop-outs from sober living homes.

GOALS

• Get people into housing and then provide services.
• Provide a variety of services, including emergency shelter, transitional housing, and rapid re-housing to supplement affordable housing.
• Cooperation between governments, nonprofits, and private companies.
• Require affordable or transitional housing as part of new home development
• Strike a balance between compassion and enabling homelessness
• Partner with other cities to provide regional services

LIMITATIONS

None of the speakers addressed the problem of the self-selected homeless. According to my research and from talking with the Lake Forest Deputy Sheriff who handles homeless people, there are many who chose to be homeless. It would have been interesting to learn more about this group. There was also no discussion of the issue of homeless people with pets, with has been estimated to be between 5% and 24% of the population (Click Here).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook. His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.

Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a mini town meeting every month. The next meeting will be on Sept 9 at 2 pm at the El Toro Public Library.