Orange County, California, is still searching for an operator to run its emergency cold weather shelter as winter commences and temperatures drop.
The county’s Commission to End Homelessness emphasized the urgency of finding an operator for the shelter during a Dec. 15 meeting.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer called the situation an “emergency,” saying “cold is here now.”
“We’re supposed to end homelessness, and that could mean whether long term or short term, but that to me means that somebody needs a place to sleep tonight,” Spitzer said during the meeting. “It’s almost immoral to have people who don’t have a place to sleep at night.”
Spitzer, along with the rest of the commission members, agreed to continue efforts to open the shelter.
“Whatever the hurdles are—whether it’s location, whether it’s the operator, or whether it’s lawsuits—we should start to identify what we have to do to change the situation,” said commission member Paul Wyatt, who is also a former Dana Point councilman.
An Orange County spokesperson told the Epoch Times in an email that the county has been discussing with multiple providers to run a cold weather shelter.
“We are continuing these discussions at this time,” the spokesperson said.
The county typically opens a temporary shelter for its homeless population in November each year; this year, it planned to open one in December but was delayed by several setbacks.
After putting out a bid for a shelter operator in the summer and not receiving any responses, the county discussed partnering with the Salvation Army to run a shelter in downtown Santa Ana.
The Salvation Army eventually backed out of the county shelter deal in October, however, after facing opposition from Santa Ana city officials, who said in a statement that a new county shelter may draw more homeless individuals from other parts of the county.
Also, they said, unlike year-round shelters, this type of seasonal shelter closes during the day and could leave individuals from other parts of the county “without a familiar place to go during the day.”
Santa Ana’s then-mayor Vicente Sarmiento and City Manager Kristine Ridge argued that the city already has sufficient capacity to serve its homeless population—with 425 beds at a county shelter on Yale Street and 200 beds at the city’s shelter on Carnegie Avenue.
Currently, there are about 990 homeless individuals in Santa Ana, according to a point-in-time count released by Orange County in May. The report also shows that the city’s total homeless population dropped 44 percent—from 1,769 to 990—over the past three years.
After hearing the city’s case, David O. Carter, a federal court judge, issued a temporary ruling Oct. 14 to stop the county from opening the shelter in Downtown Santa Ana.
David O. Carter, a federal court judge, ruled Oct. 21 that the county can operate a shelter at an alternative location in Santa Ana, the National Guard Armory at 612 E. Warner Avenue.
However, since the Salvation Army deal failed to materialize, the county was left scrambling to find an operator for the shelter.
At the same hearing, Carter also pushed local officials to lower restrictions on its existing shelters.
Santa Ana officials responded they would lower the bar for shelter admission and provide enough beds for short-term stays.
