The number of people reported homeless in Orange County increased by 28% in the last two years, according to the latest “point in time count” results released Wednesday by county officials.
The county reported 7,322 people approached during the January count said they were experiencing homelessness. The last count in 2022 tallied 5,718 people either living on the streets in Orange County or staying in shelters.
Of those surveyed this year, 328 were veterans, 308 were young adults between 18 and 24 years old, and 869 were seniors ages 62 or older.
RELATED: Here’s where in Orange County homeless people were in 2024, compared to 5 years ago
“The most concerning thing about the 2024 point in time count summary was the 1,172 individuals who fell into homelessness for the first time in the last 12 months,” Fourth District Supervisor Doug Chaffee said. “We need to do more to prevent homelessness and prevent the trauma before it occurs.”
The count every two years is required by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, helping determine, officials say, the number of people who are homeless, but also collecting important information on where people gather and more about who they are and their needs, such as how many are families, juveniles or have a disability.
The data also plays a significant role in how much funding the county receives from state and federal governments.
This year, 3,149 people were reported as experiencing “sheltered homelessness,” meaning they were staying in emergency shelters or some other form of temporary housing. Of that group, 456 were seniors.
The survey counted 4,173 people living on the streets. A little more than three-fourths of the people surveyed by the point in time count reported that their last permanent address was in Orange County.
There were 347 families, including 685 children, among the homeless counted, though most – 291 – were in some sort of shelter. But 99 children were still counted among those living on the streets.
“”At the end of the day, we’re doing so much and we still can’t solve the problem,” Fifth District Supervisor Katrina Foley said. “We need to look at what’s maybe the root of the problem, and it in large part is the cost of housing, the access to affordable rent and that outpacing compensation and wages. And the supply, of course, there’s not enough housing.”
County officials said though the increase in homelessness was double digits looking from 2022 to 2024, looking back to pre-pandemic, homelessness only rose about 7% from the 2019 count to 2024.
Explaining the large increase from 2022 to 2024, Doug Becht, director of the county’s Office of Care Coordination, said in the early years after the onset of the coronavirus, Orange County residents had access to help such as the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, with about $300 million in funding awarded by the county to help people stay in housing. Residents were also protected from evictions at the time.
The report also found – what Becht called the “loudest takeaway” – that 72% of the people living in the county-run Yale Navigation Center and Bridges at Kraemer Place were eligible for housing, but only one out of 12 were actually connected to any.
“What this obviously means, is that we don’t have enough permanent housing to help assist people trying to get out of homelessness. But it also means that people in our shelter are staying there longer because (they) don’t have a place to go,” Becht said. “And then, additionally, what that means is because people are staying there longer … other people are prevented from accessing our shelter. So it’s a real backlog that’s created with the lack of housing capacity here in Orange County.”
Foley said she’d like to see more county dollars go toward the construction of more housing.
“We need to invest in permanent supportive housing, build more permanent supportive housing and we need to get more people out of the shelter into that housing,” Foley said. “That’s where I would focus our investment.”
One of the biggest challenges in making that happen is a $950 million funding gap, Becht said, in what is needed to build close to 2,400 permanent supportive housing units identified in the county’s housing funding strategy.
“We’ve had discussions about how to increase funding, but that’s not a program that the county has sole responsibility or authority over because it’s complicated, which is why housing takes so long to put into place,” Frank Kim, Orange County CEO, said.
Cities and local communities, he said, need to get behind the development of more affordable and supportive housing.
Whether sheltered or unsheltered, a little more than a third of people reached in the point in time count reported being chronically homeless – more than 1,500 adults living on the street have struggled with repeated bouts of being homeless. About 48% were homeless for the first time.
Some of other findings in the point in time count’s summary:
•Nearly 52% of people living on the streets said they had family living in Orange County.
•About 63% said they were working or have previously worked in Orange County.
•42% identified as White. The second largest demographic, 36%, said they were Hispanic/Latino.
•More than 2,000 people, or nearly half of those living on the streets who talked to surveyors, said they have a substance abuse disorder. About 10% of respondents said they had experienced domestic violence.
Anaheim saw a 23% increase in the number of people living without shelter compared to the last point in time count. City spokesperson Mike Lyster said high inflation and a drug crisis of fentanyl and methamphetamine are factors that the city sees as contributing to the growing number of people living unhoused.
Michael Sean Wright, director of field medicine at Lestonnac Free Clinics and founder of nonprofit Wound Walk, said to better address homelessness, the county should better address the health needs of unsheltered people.
“The survey says people want help, but unfortunately, we just don’t have the capacity within the county for medical detox and recuperative care beds,” he said. “We understand the housing first model, however, if folks are dying of lack of medical attention, that’s not as productive as we should be.”
Neither Wright or Becks Heyhoe, executive director of United to End Homelessness, were surprised by the increase in OC’s homeless population.
“What we’re seeing in Orange County is certainly not an isolated increase. It’s a trend that’s happening not just in California, but across the country as well,” Heyhoe said.
Statewide homelessness is up 20% in California over the last five years.
“The cost of living has continued to rise in Orange County,” Heyhoe said. “We’re still not building enough housing at the rate that we need to, and certainly not at levels that are affordable for most people living and working in Orange County.
“All of those compounding factors are adding to a housing shortage. Any time we have a housing shortage, we tend to see homelessness increase,” she said.
Over the past few years, Heyhoe added, the Orange County community has come together to address homelessness whether it’s employing outreach workers or adding more shelter beds, but without more housing units, the problem will not be solved.
“I think one thing that the report did a really good job of highlighting early on is that the vast majority of people experiencing homelessness want to end their homelessness, and they are doing what our system is asking them to,” Heyhoe said. “We are just really struggling to have the resources available to actually resolve their housing crisis.”
Staff Writer Michael Slaten contributed to this report.
