left The
Buena Park Navigation Center welcomes homeless individuals; below the Placentia Navigation Center offers a safe place to sleep.
Regional Partnership: How to Address Homelessness Differently by Damien R. Arrula and Aaron France The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in Martin v. City of Boise in September 2018, a case of importance to cities throughout the Ninth Circuit jurisdiction, which includes California. The court ruled that enforcement of ordinances against homeless individuals is unconstitutional when those individuals do not have a meaningful alternative, such as shelter space or a legal place to camp. In an effort to comply with the Martin v. City of Boise decision, 12 cities in northern Orange County that comprise the North Specific Planning Area of Orange County (N-SPA) collaborated on a regional approach to address homelessness. The 12 cities include Placentia, Brea, Buena Park, Cypress, Fullerton, La Habra, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Orange, Villa Park, Stanton, and Yorba Linda. The N-SPA cities adopted this unique approach as a proactive response to a series of civil rights lawsuits filed against cities and counties (including Orange County) under the Martin v. City of Boise decision to challenge their authority to enforce anti-camping or anti-loitering ordinances against unsheltered individuals and specifically in those jurisdictions that lacked adequate overnight shelter capacity for their homeless population. To avoid the cost and expense of litigating issues that were essentially resolved in Martin v. City of Boise, each city in the N-SPA voluntarily entered into a settlement agreement that established a comprehensive shelter plan for the region. U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter accepted the settlement agreement and will oversee the
parties’ implementation of the shelter plan during the agreement’s four-year term.
Details of the Agreement The goal of the settlement agreement was to create a system of regional navigation centers that would provide safe shelter and an array of supportive services to homeless residents of the North Orange County region. To accomplish this, the agreement provided for: 1. The N-SPA cities to develop two new navigation centers offering at least 200 shelter beds. 2. The cities’ sharing of referral capacity in the two new navigation centers, together with capacity available in existing shelters in the N-SPA. 3. The N-SPA cities’ enforcement of anticamping and anti-loitering ordinances after the two new navigation centers were operational, using agreed-upon enforcement procedures. These procedures are designed to facilitate the placement of unsheltered individuals in appropriate temporary housing, decrease the frequency of negative encounters, respect individuals’ rights, and comply with Martin v. City of Boise.
The N-SPA cities entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to create full-service navigation centers for the region’s homeless individuals. The comprehensive MOU defines each city’s financial obligation and references a formula that accounts for each jurisdiction’s anticipated capacity needs, and it also includes a process for reconciling each city’s financial shares on an annual basis if the actual usage exceeds estimates. The MOU (and settlement agreement) expressly restricts capacity to residents of the N-SPA region and details the client referral process, transportation policies and responsibilities, and general operating standards. A committee composed of a city manager from each N-SPA city met frequently over a two-year period to develop the MOU and settlement agreement, oversee management and operations, and identify funding opportunities.
Funding for the Project The N-SPA cities used a variety of funding sources to finance construction of the new navigation centers and offset initial operating costs with limited General Fund impact for the participating cities. In November 2018, the State of California awarded $12,062,300 in Homeless Emergency Aid Program (HEAP) funding for N-SPA’s proposal, via the Orange County continued
Damien R. Arrula is city administrator for the City of Placentia and can be reached at darrula@placentia.org. Aaron France is interim city manager for the City of Buena Park and can be reached at afrance@buenapark.com. Western City, October 2020
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