Homelessness in Orange County: The Cost to Our Community
But whatever the count from one PIT estimate to the next, we should be cautious about becoming fixated on the approximate number; for whether it is 4,000, 4,500, 5,000 or more, the fact remains that there are thousands of individuals who are homeless in the county on any given night, and this fact alone constitutes a persistently pressing problem not only for these homeless individuals but also for both the county’s various public service agencies and municipalities. More specifically, in addition to the devastating and traumatizing physical and psychological costs of homelessness to those individuals and families who experience it, homelessness imposes considerable economic costs on the communities in which it exists. The intent of this study has been to assess the approximate costs of homelessness to the county government, the 34 municipalities within the county and the non-governmental service agencies, including hospitals and non-profit service agencies. This research also assesses the extent to which the cost of addressing homelessness varies across the spectrum of those living on the streets and in shelters in comparison to those living in various types of housing. It is the intersection of these various considerations that provide a major rationale for the value of this study. A second rationale for this cost study is provided by the increasing recognition of the
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homelessness problem by the County of Orange and other local organizations, and the overlap of a number of initiatives to deal with the problem. Included among these initiatives is the County’s 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness, the county’s new Office of Care Coordination, which was established in 2016, ACC-OC’s Homelessness Task Force and the United Way’s FACE 2024 Strategic Plan, which adopted housing as one of its four pillars. This cost study was conducted to leverage the work of these initiatives in a collaborative manner. The third rationale for conducting the study is to provide a basis for comparing the costs of homelessness in Orange County with the research on costs accrued by other metropolitan areas and municipalities within the state, and to understand the reasons for cost similarities and differences. To date, cost studies have been conducted in the major municipalities throughout the state, including Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and the San Jose and Silicon Valley area, but no such cost study has been completed for Orange County. Taken together, the foregoing rationales indicate that there are a number of pressing reasons for having conducted the research reported herein. Before turning to summary of that research, it is important to note the study’s distinctive features.
Distinctive Features There are two noteworthy features of this study. The first distinctive feature is the study’s comprehensiveness. This is indicated by the variety of sources from which the data were collected: the County of Orange, the 34 municipalities within the county, Orange County hospitals (via the Hospital Association of Southern California and Cal Optima), a sample of the full variety of non-governmental agencies addressing homelessness, and a sample of individuals not only experiencing homelessness
11 | Introduction
$1,000 Social Security check. She sleeps five to six nights a week on a bench in Anaheim, but uses a portion of that check to stay in a motel at least one night a week, usually Friday and/or Saturday, to get a good sleep, a warm shower and wash her clothes. Individuals like her may be missed in the PIT count. This example, among others, suggests that the actual number of people who are homeless in the county on any given night is likely to be somewhat higher than the PIT estimate.6
